Channel 4 News reports, Embryo attack cardinal under fire:
A church leader came under fire after he accused the Prime Minister of promoting legislation which would enable cells to be taken from people without consent.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, leader of Scotland’s Roman Catholics, claimed the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill had “grotesque” implications. In an open letter to Gordon Brown, the cardinal compared the provisions of the Bill to behaviour last seen in Nazi Germany. The attack came ahead of a debate on the Bill in the House of Lords.
Labour peer Lord Robert Winston, a fertility expert, criticised the cardinal’s comments, saying they were not constructive. He also pointed out the Catholic Church remained silent over Nazi experiments during the Second World War . . .
Times Online: Cardinal attacked over ‘Nazi’ embryo Bill outburst
The Press Association: Embryo attack cardinal under fire
The Scotsman: Cardinal’s Nazi jibe ‘risks Scottish jobs’
CARDINAL Keith O’Brien, the leader of Scotland’s Roman Catholics, was today at the centre of a fresh row over his comments likening embryo research to Nazi experiments.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott claimed the remarks could have endangered Scottish jobs in the life sciences industry . . .
More reports through Google News
Text of the Cardinal’s Open Letter to the Prime Minister from the Scottish Catholic Media Office: Cardinal O’Brien asks Prime Minster to amend HFEA Bill
I write this open letter to you on a matter of immediate urgency, namely tomorrow’s debate in the Lords on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Although I was relieved that last week’s debate in the Commons on the Bill did not address the issue of abortion, I remain convinced that the Bill is misguided and certain sections are potentially most harmful.
Among these is Schedule 3 which has never been properly discussed in Parliament. It provides for taking tissue from incapacitated adults and children without their consent for the express purpose of creating embryos for research . . .
The Bill could allow for the derivation and use of human eggs from the ovarian tissue of aborted baby girls, a proposal which was first aired by the HFEA in 1994 . . .
Should this Bill become law, removing tissue from incapacitated adults or children, without their specific consent in order to create animal-human hybrid or other embryos would be permissible, as would creating artificial sperm or artificial eggs from bone marrow or even cord blood.
The grotesque implications of these procedures are utterly horrifying . . .
Such behaviour was last seen under the Nazis. Following the liberation of the concentration camps in 1945, the full horrors of the Nazi’s atrocities were revealed to a shocked world . . .
Zenit News: Cardinal O’Brien to SPUC Conference: “Forces of Darkness Have Distorted the Laws and Consciences in Our Nation”
Christian Concern for our Nation: Attempt to improve protections for embryos used in experimentation fails in House of Lords.
