Cardinal urges PM to grant free vote on hybrids Bill

BY SIMON CALDWELL
CARDINAL Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has called on Gordon Brown to grant Labour MPs a free vote on proposals to create animal-human hybrid embryos for destructive experiments.
The Archbishop of Wstminster put his weight behind backbench MPs threatening a rebellion over the controversial proposals in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
"MPs should also request and be granted a free vote on those parts of this Bill which deal with fundamental issues of personal conscience," wrote the Cardinal in a letter that will be read out in more than 5,000 Catholic parishes this weekend.
He said that the Bill touched on "profound questions of human life and dignity" and he urged Catholics to write to the Prime Minister to demand he allowed moral issues in the Bill be treated as matters of conscience.
"Many people of all faiths and none are deeply concerned by the moral questions raised by this Bill," the Cardinal said. "Now is the time for our voices to be heard.
"Taking action on this pressing issue now helps to remind us that our Christian witness can never just be personal but involves us too as citizens committed to serving the common good of society and to upholding the human dignity of all," he added.
During the passage of the Bill through the House of Lords the Government imposed a three-line whip on Labour peers for each vote.
This ensured the failure of all six attempts to amend the Bill by those who had moral objections to its contents. The Tories permitted free votes, however, as did the Liberal Democrats, with the exception of the fatherlessness provision.
Normally, three-line whips are used only on key issues, such as a vote of no confidence or a vital loss of tax revenue if a Bill is overturned.
The Bill extends the scope of destructive scientific experimentation on human embryos and also allows the creation of animal and human hybrid embryos for research. It removes the legal principle that IVF doctors must have regard for the child's need for a father. There will also be attempts in the Commons where the Bill will arrive at any time after Monday to use the legislation to liberalise the abortion law. So far, the Government intends to allow a fire vote only on abortion, a traditional issue of conscience which does not feattur in the Bill. The legislation, however, will provide the opportunity for the first amendments by MPs to the 1967 Abortion Act in 18 years.
Some MPs want to lower the upper time limit from 24 to 20 weeks but pro-abortion MPs, led by Liberal Democrat Evan Harris, are preparing a raft of amendments to further liberalise the 1967 Act, already considered one of the most permissive in the world.
They seek to allow abortion on demand in the first trimester of pregnancy, allow nurses and GPs to perform abortions and to extend the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. The Government has been inundated with calls from within its own ranks to allow a free vote on the fatherlessness provision and the creation of animal-human hybrids in the same way as it is for abortion amendments.
Earlier this month Jim Dobbin became the first Labour MP to declare publicly that he is willing to defy a whip on the Bill.
He told a pro-life rally in London that MPs opposed to the Bill were still hoping to persuade the Prime Minister to change his mind.
But, he said, in the absence of a free vote he would oppose the Government a move which could result in his expulsion from the Party.
Letters: Page II