Dignitas personae

Dignitas personae (Latin: The dignity of the person) is the title of an instruction which would be published on 8 December 2008 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This basic text on bioethical issues has been completed already on 8 September 2008 and bears the official title: " Dignitas personae - About some questions of bioethics ."

Has this 30 -page work to the rank of " instruction " and is for the Catholic Church a binding opinion of the Church's Magisterium, even if they are not formally is the equivalent of an encyclical. This fundamental work was created in collaboration between the CDF and the Pontifical Academy for Life and builds on the previous instruction " Donum Vitae " (1987) and the encyclical " Evangelium Vitae " (1995) by Pope John Paul II. Your special authority is derived from the carried out on 20 June 2008 papal approbation.

In Dignitas personae the known positions of the Church are not only repeated, but rather is based on the latest scientific findings and rejects from positive intention of protecting human dignity certain developments in reproductive medicine from. Included herein are propagated in the UK production of human-animal hybrid creatures and attempts to gain embryonic like stem cells by cell nuclear replacement.

Mainly turns the instruction against the " in vitro fertilization ", especially for the reason that the production of surplus embryos and their destruction is taken into account. The instruction also combines with pastoral approaches and shows understanding for the suffering of infertile couples without.

According to the instruction also drugs or vaccines must for saving the life of a child are used " in cell lines of illicit origin were used, but all are obliged, however, to object and request that the health care systems of other types of vaccines make available. " (No. 35)