Bill to Expand Embryo Research Proposed in British Legislature  Part Two of Two
By Liz Townsend

The British legislature is considering a bill that would loosen regulations for research and experimentation on human embryos, allowing the creation of human clones for training exercises as well as interspecies hybrids.

“The principal objection to the bill is the way in which it further demeans the status of the human embryo—the delicate and critical first stage of our existence,” Anthony Ozimic, political secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said in a press release. “The bill promotes a range of unethical, unnecessary and dangerous practices. Such practices include the genetic manipulation of embryonic children for research purposes, the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos, and eugenic ‘search-and-destroy’ tests for disabling conditions.”

The government introduced the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill November 9, according to the Daily Mail. The bill passed through its second reading in the House of Lords November 21, meaning that members will be able to add amendments and conduct a debate beginning December 3.

Pro-life and religious organizations have many serious objections to the bill. According to SPUC, the bill would allow the creation of “savior siblings,” children conceived specifically to treat a disease in their older brothers or sisters; define “embryo” to include those created by cloning and other processes, without extending any further protections; create a category called “permitted embryos,” which would allow certain cloned embryos to be transferred to a womb; permit the creation of embryos with genes from both humans and animals; and allow sperm or eggs to be taken from patients without consent.

The Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, has taken the unusual step of inviting all Catholic members of Parliament to a reception, where he intends to discuss this bill along with possible changes to abortion law, the London Times reported.

“New research techniques, and most recently licences for research on human-animal hybrids, have been pushed forward with inadequate attention to the long-term ethical problems they pose,” Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor wrote in the Times. “The many serious ethical issues raised by this Bill require that Members of both Houses are given a free vote in accordance with their conscience.”

“We are disappointed but unsurprised that both the government and the House of Lords wish to see the bill progress to the next stage,” Ozimic said. “SPUC will continue to urge parliamentarians to reject the bill in principle and as a whole and we will support whatever parliamentary activity is most effective in helping to stop the bill. We will be emphasising how advances in ethical alternatives to destructive embryo research make many of the bill’s provisions redundant.”

Part One