Bishop calls for support in fight against embryo laws

Feb 13 2008 By John Hutcheson, Wishaw Press

WP 389207F

THE BISHOP of Motherwell has urged the people of Lanarkshire to campaign against the Government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryo Bill.

The Rt Rev Joseph Devine has sent a letter to all 74 parishes throughout Lanarkshire urging action against the Bill.

And he has asked them to actively seek support from relations, friends and neighbours, of all religious faiths and none, to join the campaign.

In his letter, he points out that the Bill, if passed, will allow the making of embryos that are a mixture of human and animal.

The Bishop highlights the fact that “the Bill permits experiments that most of the world would like to see outlawed” and insists that supporters of the Bill are misleading patient groups, medical charities and politicians into believing that “unless they supported laws permitting embryo experiments they would be condemning people to a life of suffering and pain and be endangering life-saving work”.

He continues: “They were led to believe that they had to choose between the ideas of helping to cure disease over the equally cherished belief that it was unconscionable to destroy early human life in experimentation.

“Recent scientific breakthroughs render completely needless the further destruction of human embryos or the creation of animal-human hybrids.”

The Bishop added: “Wonderful advances in ethical adult stem cell research are being made at an incredible rate. More than 70 real treatments at the last count and 300 clinical trials have been documented using adult stem cells.

“Whereas, since 1990, more than two million human embryos have been destroyed or experimented on and the experiments have not led to a single cure anywhere in the world.

“Even Professor Ian Wilmut, the celebrated creator of Dolly the Sheep that captured world headlines, is abandoning cloning in favour of a medically superior and more ethical technique.”

Bishop Devine concludes: “The Government hope that the majority of the public remain indifferent to these issues.

“If few people speak out it will be presumed that most people are happy enough with what is being proposed.

“Politicians must be told bluntly by thousands of voters that their vote will be cast against any MP supporting this Bill. And abstention is not enough.”

The Bishop said he hopes the campaign will be a community-wide matter rather than a Catholic-led issue.

He added: “I am mindful of the generous encouragement and support I have consistently enjoyed from so many members of Protestant churches and others, in my public appeals against government reforms that undermined moral values and family life and impinged on our basic freedom to practice our Christian faith.

“Without that allegiance and support, I would have found it very difficult to continue to challenge this powerful anti-life and anti-family government.”