Only 1 in 5 Catholics "defer" to Church on stem cell issues

When I started Mary Meets Dolly nearly 6 years ago, I was one of the uneducated masses that unconsciously believed the stereotype that my Church was stuck in the past; that the Catholic Church was behind the times.  In the months of research that it took me to get up to speed on biotechnology and the Church's teaching, I discovered something that changed my life.  I discovered that my Church was not backward at all.  In fact it was more forward thinking that any another institution I had ever encountered.  (And having performed DNA sequencing for Nobel Prize winning labs, that is saying something.)  The writings of Pope Paul VI's Humane Vitae back in 1968 spoke directly to the moral conundrums we face today with stem cell research and cloning.  If society had listened, we would not have nearly half a million frozen human embryos that researchers cannot wait to rip apart.  If society had listened, we wouldn't be cloning embryos with cow, rabbit and mouse eggs in a vain effort to live forever.  If society had listened, those with genetic abnormalities would not be seen as second class citizens and promptly killed in the womb or tossed in the fertility clinic trash.   If society had listened, 163 million girls would not have been killed in sex selective abortion.  With crystal ball-like clarity, the Church warned us of the evils of separating the natural pairing of procreation and sex.  If only we had listened.  While I was elbow deep in books from non-Catholic scientists, reporters, and lawyers, I found the wisdom of my Church and was overcome with joy that the Church was still here to guide us.

That is why this news saddens me so.  A survey done by researchers at the University of Reno have found that Catholics are not listening to their Church when it comes to stem cell research and cloning.  From Nevada Today (warning this article says the therapeutic cloning is banned in the U.S. when it is not):

Evans, a sociologist, also found it interesting that the majority of respondents trusted their own judgment most when deciding on their approval or disapproval on stem cell research issues, rather than looking to their church or other authorities, such as governmental ethics committees.

“The vast majority, over two-thirds, said that in deciding whether it is right to allow these treatments, they would follow their own judgment,” she said. “Only 4 percent gave greater moral weight to the Catholic Church than to themselves, and even among committed church-going Catholics, only about one in five defer to the church on these matters.”

The study also revealed that despite the Catholic Church’s firm opposition, support for the use of stem cell research for the cure or treatment of serious diseases was almost as strong among Catholic laity as among Protestants.

I have no doubt that most Catholics polled had no idea what their Church's teaching is on stem cell research and that the polling questions were written to evoke a particular answer.  But the fact that 1 in 5 Catholics would not look to their Church for guidance on such complex issues is heartbreaking.  Catholic teaching on issues of biotechnology is consistent, wise and will allow us to control technology instead of it controlling us.  Without Church teaching on things like genetic engineering, I fear the human race is doomed to be slaves to the technology it creates.  The hard part it getting our fellow Catholics, and the rest of society, to understand the forwarding-thinking wisdom of the Church.