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"I encourage you
to carry out (your work) in ways that do not contribute to
nourishing the 'throwaway culture' that sometimes creeps into
the world of scientific research," he said at an event aimed at
raising awareness of Huntington's disease, a degenerative brain
condition.
"We know that no end, even a noble one like the expectation of a
benefit for science, for other human beings or for society, can
justify the destruction of human embryos," Francis added.
Thousands of people who suffer from Huntington's disease, an
inherited condition which can eventually make a person unable to
walk, talk or swallow, attended the event at the Vatican with
their families.
Many traveled from Latin America, where some countries are
disproportionately affected by the disease, to listen to the
Argentine pontiff.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) says 2.7 people in
every 100,000 globally present the disease - not including gene
carriers - but prevalence is up to 1,000 times higher in pockets
of Latin America.
(Reporting by Isla Binnie, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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