Human/Animal hybrid embryos have right to life, say Catholic bishops
Pastor Dale Morgan
Human/Animal hybrid embryos have right to life, say Catholic bishops*
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 26/06/2007
Human-animal hybrid embryos conceived in the laboratory - so-called
“chimeras” - should be regarded as human and their mothers should be
allowed to give birth to them, the Roman Catholic Church said yesterday.
Under draft Government legislation to be debated by Parliament later
this year, scientists will be given permission for the first time to
create such embryos for research as long as they destroy them within two
weeks.
But the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, in a submission to the
Parliamentary joint committee scrutinising the draft legislation, said
that the genetic mothers of “chimeras” should be able to raise them as
their own children if they wished.
The bishops said that they did not see why these “interspecies” embryos
should be treated any differently than others.
The wide-ranging draft Human Tissue and Embryo Bill, which aims to
overhaul the laws on fertility treatment, will include sections on test
tube babies, embryo research and abortion. Ministers say that the
creation of animal-human embryos - created by injecting animal cells or
DNA into human embryos or human cells into animal eggs - will be heavily
regulated.
They insist that it will be against the law to implant “chimeras” -
named after the mythical creature that was half man and half animal -
into a woman’s womb.
The bishops, who believe that life begins at conception, said that they
opposed the creation of any embryo solely for research, but they were
also anxious to limit the destruction of such life once it had been
brought into existence.
In their submission to the committee, they said: “At the very least,
embryos with a preponderance of human genes should be assumed to be
embryonic human beings, and should be treated accordingly.
“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.”
The draft Bill will also allow the screening of embryos for genetic or
chromosomal abnormalities that might lead to serious medical conditions,
disabilities, or miscarriage. It will permit doctors to check whether an
embryo could provide a suitable tissue match for a sibling suffering
from a life-threatening illness.
The Bill would abolish the requirement for fertility clinics to consider
the need for a father when deciding on treatment. This means clinics
will no longer be able to deny treatment to lesbians and single mothers.
The Catholic bishops said that most of the procedures covered by the
Bill “should not be licensed under any circumstances”, principally on
the grounds that they violate human rights.