I print below a series of "debating points" about the The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill currently being discussed in Great Britain's House of Lords. It will be working its way very soon to the House of Commons.These points were published in the December edition of the Maranatha Community newsletter to help their readers more effectively correspond with their MPs and write letters to media outlets. The points are relevant, however, to anyone who is following these controversies in bioethics and so I re-print them here.
Here are some of the facts:
* First, it is simply not necessary to authorise destructive experiments on human embryos or the creation of animal-human hybrids. New scientific breakthroughs by Professor Shinya Yamanaka in Japan and Professor James Thomson in America have led to adult skin cells being converted into cells that resemble embryonic stem cells. This renders experiments on human embryos completely unnecessary.
* More than two million British human embryos have been experimented upon or destroyed since 1990, without leading to a single cure anywhere in the world. The only basis for destroying yet more human embryos is a macabre curiosity — a curiosity funded by taxpayers’ money, a curiosity which diverts public money away from life-saving therapies and cures.
* While we have been experimenting unethically with embryos, around 80 cures and 300 clinical trials have been recorded elsewhere using adult stem cells— work starved of resources in Britain. For instance, 98% of cord blood, rich in stem cells and already used to treat 45 different blood disorders, is routinely destroyed here. It is only collected at four NHS hospitals in the entire UK, while in the US there is a national network of cord banks. 8000 life-saving cord blood transplants have taken place worldwide, but only 1% of these in the UK. How many British lives has that cost? Taxpayers’ money has gone down the drain instead of being used to treat patients with debilitating diseases.
* Some patient groups and medical charities have been hijacked into believing that cures for everything from diabetes to Alzheimer’s will be discovered using human embryos. Some MPs have been deceived into believing that unless they authorised public funds and passed laws permitting embryo experiments they would be condemning people to a life of suffering and pain, and are now being told that unless they allow animal-human hybrid embryos they will be endangering life-saving work. This is typical of “the father of lies.” Well-meaning people should not once again fall for this blackmail.
* The Bill also allows for the creation of so-called "saviour siblings." This would enable tissue and organs to be taken from young babies and children. The Government Minister, Lord Darzi, said: "The Bill does not limit which tissue can be used in the treatment of a sibling ... and the Human Tissue Authority must approve any transplants involving organs from living donors and for children who are too young to give consent."
* The Bill also extends the grounds on which organs and tissue can be taken from "life threatening" to "serious" reasons. This is truly alarming: if this principle is accepted, there will inevitably be pressure to extend the boundaries further and further.
* The Government should be challenged for using the casuistry that saviour siblings are "donors". A donor has to give consent: that is manifestly impossible in what is proposed. Personal organ donation is often a generous and altruistic act but it is by definition an act freely entered into. It is an act of autonomy and personal choice, but clearly a baby or a young child is incapable of having any say in such a momentous decision.
* The Bill deals with a host of other issues too, such as denying the existence of a biological father; the remit and make up of the regulatory authority (the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority); and the provision of in vitro fertilisation. It was ironic that as the Committee listened to the Government’s case for abolishing fathers, another Government agency, the Child Support Agency, was pursuing a sperm donor whose sperm had been used to create a baby for two women, whose relationship subsequently broke up. He is not recognised as a legal parent of the child, but was forced to take a £400 paternity test, and is now having his pay docked by the CSA to pay thousands of pounds of support.
It is refreshing to see Christian leaders take seriously the need to "equip the saints for the work of the ministry" instead of concentrating only on the comfortable, emotional, self-absorbed style which marks so much of modern Christianity. Note too that Trumpet Call, the name of the newsletter, takes on other issues including the Islamification of Britain, suppression of speech, the gambling crisis, persecution of Christians, and more. You can find Trumpet Call and other information about the Maranatha Community at their website right here. And thanks, Stuart, for the heads up.
