Britain allows conscience vote on hybrids after prelates' appeals

Published: 2008-03-25

LONDON (CNS) -- After Easter weekend appeals by British Catholic leaders, the government agreed to allow Labor Party legislators to vote according to their consciences on parts of a bill to legalize the creation of human-animal embryos for research. During his Easter homily, Cardinal Keith O'Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland, accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown of seeking to pass a law that represents a "monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life." Cardinal O'Brien claimed the bill would allow experiments of "Frankenstein proportions" and accused Brown of attempting to drive into law a range of "hideous practices." The cardinal added: "Further, it seems that Labor members of Parliament are not to be allowed a free vote on this bill and consequently are denied the right to vote according to their conscience -- a right which all other political parties have allowed." However, Brown announced March 25 that he would allow a free vote on parts of the bill, which would legalize the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for research in the hope of obtaining cures for a range of illnesses, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

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