This week the British parliament finally passed the government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill, following a House of Lords (pictured) debate on changes made to the bill by the House of Commons. Anthony Ozimic, SPUC political secretary, who was at the debate, reported:
"A number of Lords were particularly concerned by the denial of legal fatherhood as a means of giving equal parental rights to lesbians. They were also concerned by the bill's permission to use, without consent, archived genetic material in research, including for the creation of embryos. The government, however, used its majority to crush even the most modest attempts to restrict some of the bill's most radical proposals."
Anthony commented further:
"The whole bill and the way it has been passed through parliament represent a suppression of ethics and human nature by utilitarian extremists among the science lobby. This is why concerned scientists and physicians have acted to try to stop such a suppression happening again, by presenting a declaration to UNESCO." (I blogged earlier this week about this declaration.)
