A new Vatican document, titled “Dignitas Personae,” is scheduled to be released at a news conference in Rome. The document, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, represents the first authoritative statement on reproductive science in more than 20 years. In 1978, the Catholic Church had released the Donum Vitae, the Gift of Life, in which the Vatican expressed its opinion upon in vitro fertilization, saying it is immoral to “produce human embyos destined to be exploited as disposable ‘biological material.’”

After years of debate over the morality of adopting frozen embryos and the morality of stem cell research, the Vatican reiterates its opposition to embryonic stem cell research, saying the practice raises serious ethical concerns. The document warns about the ethical concerns of a variety of procedures, including the freezing of unfertilized eggs and embryos, the injection of sperm directly into eggs, and the genetic testing of embryos to identify those with defects. The document does not specifically forbid the practice of adopting frozen embryos, but says that those embryos are consigned to an absurd destiny and they are not offered any acceptable solution. According to the Embryo Adoption Awareness Center, there are almost 500,000 frozen embryos in storage in the United States.

Vatican’s officials say the church encourages scientific progress but want ethics to be a part of it.

Stem cell research has been a subject of controversy from the very beginning as it uses human embryos in order to create stem cells. Critics of embryonic research include Catholic Church, US President George W. Bush and German lawmakers. Bush even banned funding of research that uses newly destroyed embryos.

Unlike President George W. Bush, who restricted federal funding for embryonic research, President-elect Barack Obama has supported legislation that would allow researchers to use embryos in their earliest stages of life for experimentation in medical research.