"It's clearly not in our statutes to bring up and re-study issues of human life that have already been decided," she said in a phone interview from her home in Caracas, Venezuela.
The statutes do allow for collaboration with non-Catholic and non-Christian scientists, but only if they "recognize that the dignity of man and the inviolability of human life from conception to natural death ... is the essential moral foundation of the science and art of medicine."
It was the second time the academy has come under fire from its members for its speakers' list this year.
In March, it hastily canceled a stem cell research conference whose speakers included scientists whose work involves human embryonic stem cells, which is opposed by the church. The academy said too few sponsors and participants had signed up to take part.
And in 2010, the academy's membership rebelled against its then-president, Monsignor Renato Fisichella, over his less-than-condemnatory comments about abortion. He was soon replaced.
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