Everything technologically possible need not be ethically permissible, and for this we need a bioethics that is open to the transcendent, said a Vatican official.<\/p>\n
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barrag\u00c3\u00a1n, the president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, said this during a conference co-sponsored by the Vatican dicastery and the Acton Institute, titled “Health, Technology and Common Good.” It was held at the Pontifical Gregorian University on Friday.<\/p>\n
In his lecture titled “The Future for Health Care: Putting Technology at the Service of Man,” the 74-year-old cardinal said: “We know that biomedical technology holds a great deal of promise in the areas of diagnosis and treatment of diseases.<\/p>\n
“But we must also be aware of the fact that technology and medicine are only a part of the health care system and undue insistence on their capabilities may give more emphasis in meeting the demands of the providers than that of the human persons.”<\/p>\n
Cardinal Lozano Barrag\u00c3\u00a1n continued: “The ultimate criterion in the use of all technologies must be the good of man.<\/p>\n
“In discussing the sciences of life and reflecting on the experimental sciences that manipulate life, one wonders about correct human behavior in relation to human life, deficiency in human life, increase in human life, improvement in human life, procedures to be followed to obtain this improvement and deviations to be avoided.<\/p>\n