PAGING MR. KMIEC....:

Vatican fires off warning to Barack Obama over stem cell research (Richard Owen, 11/11/08, Times of London)

The Vatican has fired a warning shot over the bows of Barack Obama in response to the President-elect's intention to lift the US ban on embryonic stem cell research.

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan of Mexico, who acts as the Vatican health minister, said that stem cells taken from human embryos and involving the destruction of the embryos "serve no purpose".

Asked whether the Vatican was concerned about reports that Mr Obama might reverse the Bush Administration's ban, the cardinal said that embryonic stem cell research had not resulted in any significant health cure so far and was "good for nothing".

Research on adult stem cells and umbliical cords had been shown to have "positive value", by contrast, although even that was not "a panacea for everything."