MIND THE GAP
Last Wednesday the government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill was passed by MPs by 355 to 129. It allows human/animal embryos to be created by cloning and used in experiments.
Besides allowing the creation of cloned human/animal embryos for experimentation, the bill will enshrine in law all the individual permissions given in the last 16 years by the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. It will allow homosexual partners to have children created for them in IVF labs given that it abolishes the requirement that doctors consider the “need for a father” in artificial procreation treatments. It allows the creation of children, called “saviour siblings,” to be used as tissue donors for siblings, and permits the genetic manipulation of embryos for eugenic purposes. Earlier this week, it was also revealed that the government plans to use the bill to allow the creation of human clones from tissues taken from mentally incapacitated patients who cannot give consent.
Thousands of people across the country had joined a concerted campaign against the bill, including Catholic bishops and scores of doctors, lawyers and academics. Our M.P. voted against it.
Amendments directly concerning abortion, including its extension to Northern Ireland (where virtually all the local political leaders were against it) were not debated.
Let us be aware of the increasing drift of our culture towards a post-Christian phase. Let us pray for the healing of the even deeper wounds, obvious and subtle, upon the social, psychological and spiritual fabric of our nation that this latest anti-life legislation will inflict.
Besides allowing the creation of cloned human/animal embryos for experimentation, the bill will enshrine in law all the individual permissions given in the last 16 years by the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. It will allow homosexual partners to have children created for them in IVF labs given that it abolishes the requirement that doctors consider the “need for a father” in artificial procreation treatments. It allows the creation of children, called “saviour siblings,” to be used as tissue donors for siblings, and permits the genetic manipulation of embryos for eugenic purposes. Earlier this week, it was also revealed that the government plans to use the bill to allow the creation of human clones from tissues taken from mentally incapacitated patients who cannot give consent.
Thousands of people across the country had joined a concerted campaign against the bill, including Catholic bishops and scores of doctors, lawyers and academics. Our M.P. voted against it.
Amendments directly concerning abortion, including its extension to Northern Ireland (where virtually all the local political leaders were against it) were not debated.
Let us be aware of the increasing drift of our culture towards a post-Christian phase. Let us pray for the healing of the even deeper wounds, obvious and subtle, upon the social, psychological and spiritual fabric of our nation that this latest anti-life legislation will inflict.
posted by Sinead Reekie at 9:54 am