Politics
Tuesday June 26, 2007
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
Hybrid Embryos Must be Given Right to Life Say UK Catholic Bishops
By Hilary White
LONDON, June 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In April, the British government tabled draft legislation that proposes to allow experiments to create human/animal hybrids. Now the Catholic bishops of England and Wales have responded by saying that any embryos created by combining human and animal DNA are human beings with full human rights, including the right to natural birth.
The bishops have made a submission to the parliamentary committee examining the proposed legislation and have said that the genetic mothers of these “chimeras” should be able to raise them.
There are many ways of creating embryos derived from a combination of human and animal elements. Animals with some human DNA are commonly used in medical research already. But the proposal to allow the creation of embryos from human ova in order to obtain stem cells or replacement organs has been a contentious issue even among secular ethicists who have no foundational objection to cloning.
The law, however, specifically prohibits the implantation and gestation of such embryos once they are created, meaning that the human being created must be killed after a certain point of development. The prohibition makes the British bill another of a multitude of “clone-and-kill” bills around the world.
The bishops’ submission says that most of the procedures that would be legal under the bill “should not be licensed under any circumstances.” However, though the creation of hybrid or “chimeric” embryos is itself wrong, the person conceived must be given every possible chance of life. “At the very least, embryos with a preponderance of human genes should be assumed to be embryonic human beings, and should be treated accordingly,” they wrote.
“In particular, it should not be a crime to transfer them, or other human embryos, to the body of the woman providing the ovum, in cases where a human ovum has been used to create them.”
“Such a woman is the genetic mother, or partial mother, of the embryo; should she have a change of heart and wish to carry her child to term, she should not be prevented from doing so.”
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Animal-Human Hybrid Embryos a Reality
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06081001.html
Why Embryonic Stem Cell Research? It's About Human Engineering, Not Ending Disease
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06050902.html
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- UK Bishops’ Document on Homosexuality Praised by Prominent Anti-Catholic Homosexualist
- Interview: "The Proposed Coalition Government is Very Very Scary" Says Canadian Pro-Life Leader
- Abortionist Pleads No Contest to Felonies, Faces up to 10 Years in Jail
- Catholic Bishop: "Go Right Ahead and Arrest Me" Rather than Obey Freedom of Choice Act
- Abortion Linked to Disproportionately High Rate of Black Premature Births
- Bush Interview: "I Didn't Sell my Soul for Politics"
- Unprecedented Restrictions Placed on Religious, Political Clubs at Lakehead University
- Franklin Graham, Son of Billy Graham, at California Megachurch: "Abortion is Murder"
- Author of French "Right to Die" Law Opposes Efforts to Legalize Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia
- Life Prizes Announces Winners of $600,000 Pro-Life Award
- Homosexualist Catholic University Students Join Protest against True Marriage
- Letters to the Editor for Tuesday, December 2, 2008
- Purchase of Christmas Music CD By Pro-Life Priest is Great Way to Support LifeSiteNews
Most Read this Week
- Behind the Scenes of Volition: Coincidences and Startling Circumstances
- Ad Showing Woman Seducing Santa Promotes Free Morning-After Pills and Condoms for Christmas
- Belgian Couple Sells Baby on EBay
- Leading Canadian Pro-Life MP Relates Shocking 20 Year Lack of Support From Catholic Clergy
- Naming the Anti-Life Appointments in the Obama Administration
- Cardinal on Biblical Condemnation of Homosexuality: We're Not Allowed the Cowardice of "Politically Correct" Silence
- Film Review: Volition
- A Painful, Disease-Ridden Death Isn’t So Bad if You’re Just a White, Heterosexual Male
- Just In Time for Christmas - Gift Cards for Abortions from Planned Parenthood
- Abortion Now Number One Cause of Death in Spain
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.