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Green light for embryo research
Doctors’ group lobbies for change
Early in December the British Medical Association (BMA) contacted every Member of Parliament in Britain, urging them to vote in favor of therapeutic cloning.
Dr. Ian Bogle, chairman of the BMA, which represents doctors working in all fields, wrote to the MPs calling on them to allow British scientists to press ahead with stem cell research using human embryos. Bogle told the legislators: “The development of tissue for transplantation using stem cells has the potential to benefit vast numbers of people who suffer from disorders that threaten or impede their lives.” He added, “Furthermore, by generating tissue using the patient’s own genetic material, there would be no need for patients to take the strong immuno-suppressive drugs that can be harmful when taken over a long period of time.” Bogle said stem cells derived from adults were not an adequate substitute.
However, pro-life groups lobbied MPs to vote against the proposal. Peter Garrett, research director of the group known simply as Life, told the Times: “To deliberately create and destroy human life is dehumanizing, both to the scientists who carry it out and the society that licenses it.” He added, “Once you open the floodgates on the production of human cloned embryos, you are setting up the preconditions for full pregnancy cloning.”
But a spokesman for the Department of Health countered: “We believe the ‘Frankenstein fears’ are misplaced. We are convinced this is the right thing to do. We have put forward tighter regulations which we believe address the ethical concerns.”
On December 19, parliament voted (366-174) in favor of the proposal to allow embryo research. Prime Minister Tony Blair voted in favor of the change, in what was a relatively rare appearance by the prime minister in the House of Commons voting process. Opposition leader William Hague joined most other Conservative leaders in voting No.
Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, told the Times: “We believe that the result of this vote will inevitably lead to more widespread abuse of human embryos.” He said the measure also “opens up scope for the arbitrary destruction of human embryos.”
The vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life told a Vatican Radio audience that the decision by the British Parliament was a “crime” and a “catastrophe.” Bishop Elio Sgreccia also told the newspaper Avennire that the decision was “one of the most catastrophic acts at the ending of the millennium.” He added, “It is a criminal and catastrophic fact for the future of civilization.”
“This attempts to say that the embryo is not a human being which, in addition to being a crime against life, is a crime against the truth,” concluded Bishop Sgreccia on Vatican Radio.
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