Tom Morris

While I agree with most of your sentiments, you are attempting to deny the need for independent moral judgement on research - or you are selectively denying one faith based viewpoint.

1) Real science is moral free - that is, the search for truth may not be in places we want to go to. For this reasons, scientists should make as few moral judgements as possible.

2) Nazi scientific research on live subjects is rightly deemed immoral. But I put no quotes around the word scientific in the previous sentence. They were immoral because we decided that, not because the experiements themselves were specifically flawed.

3) A faith based viewpoint that does not intrude on scientific reasoning is, for that reason, perfectly valid. Remember, some people view faith as more important than life.

4) State sponsored science ultimately serves the common good. Science is the wrong tool to define the common good.

5) Script based religious belief is dogmatic. That should not in itself be a bar to Christians or Muslims helping to shape moral codes.

6) But the most important point is to note that Catholics also have dying relatives. That neither absolves them or you from thinking.