Human/animal embryo bill before UK parliament

Three senior Roman Catholic lawmakers in Britain's governing Labour Party face a crisis of conscience over a draft law before Parliament which aims to facilitate the creation of animal-human embryos for medical research.

If passed into law, the bill will also allow lesbian couples to register as joint legal parents of a child born through IVF treatment. For government ministers Des Browne, Ruth Kelly and Paul Murphy, a vote against would breach Cabinet solidarity and could force them from their posts, the British media has speculated.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales has stated: "Many of the provisions of the bill violate human rights and thus should not be licensed under any circumstances."

Geoff Hoon, who is responsible for Labour Party discipline in Parliament, has offered party lawmakers the option of abstaining, but not voting against, the Human Fertilisation and Embryo Bill. The measure aims to put Britain at the forefront of stem cell research into cures for conditions such as motor neurone disease, Alzheimer's and cystic fibrosis.

Some Labour lawmakers have dismissed the abstention offer and are pressing for a free vote in line with the position taken by David Cameron for members of his opposition Conservative Party.

More than 100 leading academics have backed the call for a free vote in a letter to The Times newspaper on the grounds that the draft law covers sensitive ethical questions on which there is a significant diversity of moral and religious views.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of Anglicans worldwide has also called for a free vote on the bill. The Church of England's public affairs council, as with the Catholic bishops, has submitted a detailed response to those debating the law in which they support licensing of some research for limited periods and subject to case-by-case review.

Helen Watt, director of the Linacre Centre, which studies health issues from a Catholic perspective, said, "MPs of all parties should have the courage to vote against the bill, and in favour of amendments to remove its most destructive aspects."

Worshippers attending Mass throughout Britain are being urged to write to their members of parliament expressing concern about the bill. A Catholic parish briefing document states that the measure would constitute "a radical violation of human dignity" by allowing scientists to create embryos that are half human and half animal from the egg of a woman and the sperm of an animal.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Catholic leader in England and Wales, noted that decisions on allowing experimentation would be made by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. He described the authority as an unelected body not required to reflect a full range of ethical views and said it should be replaced by a bioethics commission as a forum for serious sustained reflection.