The Vatican on Tuesday reiterated its stance against using embryonic stem cells in research and said this should be respected ''by everyone'', including United States president-elect Barack Obama.
Obama has pledged to increase federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research, reversing a directive put into effect by current president George W. Bush when he took office in 2001.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the president of the Pontifical Council for Health, said he ''did not know (Obama's) position in depth'' on the matter, but that the Vatican ban ''applied to everyone''.
Barragan added that, ethical arguments aside, ''embryonic stem cells are useless'' for research, while ''excellent results are obtained from those taken from the umbilical chord or from adult cells''.
The Church is against such research, which currently results in the destruction of the embryo, because it considers foetuses human beings, from the moment of conception.
Some researchers into so-called adult stem cells have claimed they have the same potential as embryonic ones.
Embryonic cell researchers have voiced skepticism about the claims.
