Embryo campaign launched

A CAMPAIGN aimed at ensuring that embryo research is prohibited by a forthcoming parliamentary bill is to be launched next weekend.
The campaign will get underway at the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children's annual conference at Keele University. More than 500 delegates from all parts of the country are expected to attend.
Phyllis Bowman, national director of SPUC, said the Embryo Bill campaign would be "another milestone" in the society's work.
"The Government, we are told, will honour its pledge and introduce an Embryo Bill this year, with alternative clauses — one prohibiting research procedures in which human embryos were used as guinea pigs, and the second clause permitting such research — on which both Houses would be allowed a free vote.
"We must ensure that in the Commons it is put to a committee of the whole House, so that all MPs will be able to vote on the two key clauses," she said.
Speakers at the society's conference will include Ann Winterton MP, secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary ProLife Group; Jerome Lejeune, Professor of Fundamental Genetics at the Faculte de Medecine Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris, who will speak on ethical alternatives to embryo research; and Charles James, American pro-life campaigner.