June 2026

National Catholic Register portal reports on genetic experiments conducted at Columbia University, where researchers led by Dieter Egli edited the DNA of human embryos with “unprecedented accuracy” using a technique called base editing. The article highlights the ethical concerns raised by Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a neuroscientist and senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, who condemned the experiments as unethical, noting that the research could have been conducted on animal embryos instead. Father Pacholczyk further criticized the procurement of embryos — either “leftover” from IVF procedures or created specifically for experimentation — as a violation of the dignity of human life from conception. The article also touches on the broader implications of gene editing, warning of its potential eugenic applications and the Catholic Church’s conditional acceptance of gene editing only as medical therapy with minimal risk to the embryonic patient and without heritable changes. While the article presents a superficially Catholic critique, it is riddled with fatal compromises, equivocations, and omissions that betray the very doctrine it claims to defend, ultimately serving as a showcase of how even “Catholic” bioethics has been hollowed out by the post-conciliar revolution.