Pro-life group toasts victory

BY TRACY-JO SMITH
A LLADING pro-life pressure group is planning its next course of action after winning a legal victory against a government quango.
Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE) won its judicial review of a move by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to permit preimplantation genetic diagnosis for the creation of human embryos as specific tissue matches for sick siblings. The group won a High Court challenge on the grounds that the screening of test tube embryos to provide "donor siblings" for sick children was "ethically objectionable". The judge agreed that the HFEA had no right under current legislation to license the technique.
Raj and Shahana Hashmi, from Leeds, were the first couple in the UK to be given the go-ahead to use the technique in July this year.
After the judgement CORE spokeswoman Josephine Quintavalle said: "We are obviously delighted with this judgement, but this is primarily a victory for the supremacy of Parliament.
"CORE makes no secret of its opposition to the decision per se, and will continue to campaign against any procedure which puts one child at the disposal of another human being, no matter how emotional and moving the circumstances which motivate such proposals. We are adamant that it is not for the HFEA. a small unelected quango, to make these decisions,"
The HFEA said it would appeal. CORE, however, wants the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act re-visited with abortion up to birth on the basis of disability reversed.
Mrs Quintavalle said: "With social sex selection around the corner and innumerable other designer baby possibilities on the horizon. today's the judgment is particularly timely.
"These vital issues involve the very essence of what it is to be human. Parliament alone is the correct arena for decisions of such magnitude."