Posted Friday 17 October 2008
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is expected to be debated on Wednesday 22 October in the House of Commons. Writing in The Scotsman newspaper's ‘Platform' column earlier this year the Rt Rev Dr Robert Gillies, Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, offered his perspective on the issue:
"People who know me say that I have strong opinions. That may be so. But I like to think that even if people disagree with me they can still recognise the validity of the opinion I hold and might, even in spite of their disagreement with me, respect me for it. They might even think what I say is valid.
"It's against this background that I find myself in disagreement with the Cardinal Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh over what he has said with regard to stem cells and hybrid embryo research. And I say this fully respecting his leadership in his particular arena within the Christian Church. But his view is not the only view that can be legitimately given from within a Christian perspective.
"When I allow myself to day dream, I think I would like to live in a world where moral dilemmas do not confront me. Where my care, for example, for a relative with one of nature's wickedly crippling diseases such as Huntingtons or Muscular Dystropy could be made complete by their full recovery to active and uninhibited health without recourse to stem cell therapies. But none of us live in such an ideal utopia. And therefore it seems that if health and well-being is to come to such sufferers then the best option for them will come through stem cell, including hybrid embryo, research given the current absence of any alternative.
"On balance I'm reassured by the regulatory frameworks that are in place in the UK. It certainly seems to be the case that if such work is not permitted here it will be transferred to less scrupulous laboratories in countries that do not have the historic moral framework to which we can appeal in this country. I'm reassured also that such work on hybrid embryos and stem cells takes place at the microscopic level with destruction of those embryos taking place naturally, like most embryos, well within fourteen days of formation.
"True enough, a number of people who have these progressively crippling conditions are wonderfully enobled in their suffering. And many around them are blessed as a consequence of their heroic lives. However many and probably most are not, I suggest. And all of them I am certain would entertain the private thought that they'd rather be able to walk to the shops, or stand unaided in conversation out in the street, as opposed to being unable to get out of bed, however wonderfully nursed they might be by family, friends and carers.
"In those situations where I see whole families crippled by the increasing debility of a brother, a mother or a child whom they love I then say to myself, "Much as I may not like the thought of hybrid embryo research, God has enabled us to have so much insight into the workings of His creation then perhaps that is the way we must go to help those most in need of a Christian loving response."
Read more on The Scotsman website - Church leaders clash over embryo research »
Category: Bishops, Dioceses, Aberdeen & Orkney
