Saturday, May 17, 2008

Embryology Bill


Really helpful guide in Times Online to the 4 big debates happening in parliament next week over abortion, hybrid embryos, the need of children for a father, and 'saviour siblings'. Dealing with one of these alone would be hard, debating and deciding on all 4 within a couple of days seems a lot to ask from MPs.

Various resources on the ccfon website for reflection on these issues. Something to ask people to pray for tomorrow. Whilst we've already crossed the Rubicon on abortion, the other 3 issues all cross significant ethical lines, and redefine what we mean by humanity, and the nature of key relationships within human community.
The embryo hybrid debate has been the biggest one, which shows how hard it is to deal with all these issues at the same time. There hasn't really been a public debate on whether children need fathers, or conceiving a sibling with the main purpose of saving the life of a living child. It's not hard to see a bit of 'divide and rule' going on here - opponents of one area will tend to be opponents of all 4, but if we split our energies 4 ways, we may lose on all 4. Campaigners have been forced to focus on 1 of the 4 issues, which weakens opposition to the other 3.

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