Pope Urges Science Should Benefit Poor

Pope John Paul II urged scientists Monday to close the gap with poorer nations -- particularly African countries ravaged by AIDS -- and said that research should free itself from any bonds of political or economic interests. While expressing gratitude for those working in biomedicine for improving quality of life, the pontiff said research must follow "an authentically humanist orientation" and keep itself "free from the slavery of political and economic interests." John Paul spoke of a growing urgency to fill the "unacceptable gap that separates the developing world from the developed world" in biomedical research advances and to "support the populations afflicted by misery and by disastrous epidemic. I am thinking in a special way of the drama of AIDS, especially grave in many countries in Africa." Speaking to participants at a Pontifical Academy for Life gathering, John Paul also called for ethical research that avoids "every temptation to manipulate man," renewing the Vatican's denunciation of cloning and infertility-fighting practices that violate Catholic teaching.

Back to other CDC news for February 25, 2003

Previous Updates | Search the CDC archive