The Commons overwhelmingly passes the bill allowing for hybrid embryo research(336 to 176). Actually, despite opposition, it looks like it was game set and match for science these last two days, with MPs leaving alone the time limit on abortions (304 votes to 233), and allowing for ‘Saviour siblings’ (342 votes to 163).
A Q&A on the bill can be found on the BBC website which includes information on why scientist say that the research is needed to further understand complex diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Motor Neurone Disease.
With the Reverend Blair out of the way, the leaders of all major UK parties gave their backing to the bill. Predictably the main opposition came from the Catholic church, the main spokesperson in amongst the MPs saying:
“We do not believe that regulation is enough. We believe this is a step too far and therefore should be banned.
“In embryos, we do have the genetic make up of a complete human being and we could not and should not be spliced together with the animal kingdom.”
being a conservative lawyer Edward Leigh is in the perfect position to know.
Credits:
Rat head by ChinchillaVilla used under a BY-NC Creative Commons License