Available at: https://www.ncregister.com/interview/the-little-flower-blossoms-in-yale-neuroscientist

Inperson The Little Flower Blossoms in Yale Neuroscientist REGISTER sored by the American Heart Association. As a Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk (pa-HOLE-check) is a parish result, I was assigned to a summer rotation with priest who happens to hold a doctorate in neuroscience from Dr. Jack Copeland, a cardiac surgeon at the University of Arizona Medical Center. I spent Yale, and travels widely speaking on bioethics. the summer in the operating room watching Before he worked at St. Patrick’s in physicist at the University of Arizona and my surgeries and going on rounds. I was able to Falmouth, Mass., he worked as a molecular mother was a nurse. shadow a surgeon in most aspects of his daily biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. existence, visit patients, see the inner workings He holds four undergraduate degrees (mole­ Is there an early experience that led you of a large hospital, even go to the morgue for cular and cellular biology, chemistry, biochem­ to pursue science? autopsies. It was a wonderful summer that drew istry and philosophy) from the University of I grew up in a family where there was a lot me in the direction of the biosciences. Arizona and serves on the ethics committee at of discussion about science. Jesuit scientists St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, Mass. He from the Vatican observatory at the University What led to your vocation? recently spoke with Register features corre­ of Arizona would come by the house and were My vocation was connected to a lot of spondent Tim Drake. friends of the family. I enjoyed interacting with things, but it was primarily related to an expo­ them a great deal growing up. They are doing sure to St. Therese of Lisieux and her life. Where are you front originally? interesting work as astronomers and priests, and Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk testifies on human During a trip to Italy when I was 17,1 read her I grew up in Tucson, Ariz., and am the old­ are trying to build bridges between science and cloning during a hearing of a Massachusetts autobiography and was struck by her persis­ est of five children. I have four sisters. Two of faith by keeping the dialogue going. Senate committee last year. (CNS photo by Cory tence in going after her own vocation as a my sisters are adopted. My father was an astro­ At age 15,1 won a fellowship that was spon- Silken, The Pilot) continues on page 13 National Catholic REGISTER FROM PAGE ONE 13

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk: The Little Flower Blossoms in Yale Neuroscientist continuing front page interview about what you will do. You have in Worcester, Mass., has been trying accepting in-vitro fertilization in the clude any serious examination of the Carmelite nun. That was really help­ two options: One is to implant it into to do so for therapeutic purposes, but 1970s and 1980s. In-vitro fertiliza­ inherent moral objectionability of ful to me. Here was a 15-year-old the uterus and cause a live birth, and its early embryos have only grown tion is the quintessential slippery what is transpiring. This is precisely girl who was willing to go to the the other is to destroy that embryo to the six-cell stage. You have to get slope. Commercial interests came in what has occurred with in-vitro fer­ mother superior, to her bishop and and harvest its stem cells. If you past the eight-cell stage before you and started offering it as standard tilization. I see that as the looming all the way to the Pope to plead her want to be really precise about the can talk about the embryo growing practice. Today, our society has basi­ threat on the horizon. case. She knew what she was about. moral evil here, there is a greater under its own impetus. Thus far, no cally accepted in-vitro. As a civilization we have by and I knew at that point that I needed to evil in therapeutic cloning, where human embryos have gotten beyond The Catholic Church is one of large adopted an erroneous initial pursue my own calling with a real you create life for the purpose of this stage. the few voices out there that has assumption, namely, that when I get persistence. destroying it. With a cloned birth, at In fact, recent research in the been consistently opposed to it, and married I have the right to a baby. least you would end up with a baby journal Science suggests that given now we stand on the brink of con­ That is out there, and people have You have spoken frequently on that is alive. current techniques, cloning humans fronting previously unimaginable bought it hook, line and sinker. We cloning and have even testified on All of us have our origins in the may not be possible at all. issues about embryonic stem cells, don’t have a right to a baby. A baby cloning before the legislature. In a embryo, and embryos should not be Researchers have been trying to cloning and genetic engineering. It is not a possession. When we get nutshell, what’s wrong with form of domination and manipula­ instrumentalized for research pur­ clone primates for years. One is not recognized enough that in- married, we have a right instead to cloning? tion by parents over their own chil­ poses, even if the ends that might be researcher in a laboratory that spe­ vitro is what led us to where we are those acts which are, in and of them­ The first thing that is most dis­ dren. It represents a type of parental obtained through that research are cializes in primate research has tried today. selves, disposed to the procreation tinctly wrong about it, and the power that parents are not intended indisputably very good ends. It more than 300 times to clone mon­ of new life. Church has stated this quite clearly, to have. Ultimately, cloning is a type would not be acceptable ever to do keys. The best she could get was a What is your primary concern Life itself is a gift. If God gives is that cloning participates in the of human breeding, a despotic this kind of research that depends on placenta with no fetus. Primates are regarding the direction we seem to you that gift, great! If he does not, basic evil of moving procreation out attempt by some individuals to dom­ embryonic destruction. Sometimes I extremely resistant to cloning. be headed? that doesn’t somehow throw open of the setting of committed marital inate and pre-determine the make-up like to say to people, “As a former That’s why most scientists give zero My worry about these things the doors for you to do whatever you intimacy and into the laboratory. of others. embryo myself, I feel qualified to credence to the claims of the always comes from the perspective want in order to lay hold on a life. Human procreation is not meant to With cloning you also distort the speak to these matters.” Raelians that they have already of a consumerist society. There is a I repeat this point often: Human happen in that setting because that relationships between generations. If An embryo is a human being, a cloned four or five humans. real danger of a consumerist eugen­ life is a gift, not a right, not a pos­ opens it up to all kinds of ways that a woman were to clone herself using being that is human, that is not some ics in the future. Every parent session. It is a blessing to be realized you can violate human dignity. her own egg, you wouldn’t need to other kind of animal. Whether it’s a What’s at the heart of scien­ desires a perfect baby. This is a nat­ and embraced only via the specific There is a dignity both to the have a man involved at all. Oddly, person yet at the moment of concep­ tists’ inability to clone primates ural aspiration. But in a biotech­ and sacrosanct means God has fore­ process of procreation as established she would end up giving birth to her tion, whether it’s been ensouled — and humans? laden society under the shadow of ordained, namely, the marital acts of by God through sexual self-giving own identical twin — a twin sister those are very interesting intellectu­ In primate cloning procedures, it consumerism this aspiration can eas­ husband and wife. That way human and the dignity of the life itself, who is also her daughter. al discussions but they’re not ulti­ looks as if the mitotic spindle, which ily become disordered. procreation is not dehumanized and which is engendered by that process. mately relevant. In the moral analy­ is critical to the normal process of As parents are offered new possi­ depersonalized, and the human life Cloning threatens human dignity on There has been much discus­ sis, what’s critical is that once you’re cell division, gets damaged in a way bilities for choosing their children’s that is brought into being with God’s both of those levels. sion of reproductive cloning vs. a being who is human, a being with that the cell cannot recover from. characteristics, they are unlikely to help is not turned into an object of Cloning also represents a sort of therapeutic cloning. Both types the potential to become an adult, The chromosomes do not move be able to resist the temptation. By manipulation but is treated as a genetic engineering. Instead of are seen as immoral by the then you are a bearer of human properly into the daughter cells and focusing on their desires, they unique and irrepeatable subject to be choosing just a few features you’d Church, are they not? rights. you get abnormalities that look Eke become oblivious to the various safeguarded, esteemed and loved at like your offspring to have — for There really is no difference. You they will be very hard to surmount evils, which are part and parcel of all points from conception to natural example, greater height or greater go through the same identical steps Based on your knowledge, has using current techniques. the fulfillment of those desires. death. intelligence — cloning allows you to make the cloned embryo. Once anyone been successful in cloning As huge industries emerge to 77m Drake writes to choose all of the features, so it you have the cloned embryo, it is a human being? How did we get here? assure the satisfaction of those from St. Cloud, Minnesota. represents an extremely serious from there you make the decision No. Advanced Cell Technology All of this stems from our society desires, the profit motive will pre­