Leading geneticist named to Vatican academy

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a supporter of embryonic stem-cell research to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, took a leading role in the Human Genome Project.

An evangelical Christian, he wrote the bestselling The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.

According to Discover Magazine he supports human embryonic stem-cell research and “therapeutic” human cloning.

He is not the first member of the Pontifical Academy to support destructive embryo experimentation. In 2006 Stephen Hawking, a lifetime member, criticised “reactionary” forces in Europe and America seeking to ban the research.