Religious stakes in embryonic stem cell research

Bob Park reports: Destroying an embryo is equivalent to an abortion, according to Cardinal Trujillo who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family. Pope Benedict XVI has not commented. As quoted in news@nature.com , Cesare Galli of the Laboratory of Reproductive Technologies in Cremona, Italy, the first scientist to clone a horse, said: "I don't think scientists involved with embryonic stem-cell research would care if they are excommunicated or not."