Dublin, Ireland — In a surprising development, the Irish government is opposing a European Union resolution seeking to ban all forms of human cloning. Long known for its pro-life stance on abortion in the face of a largely pro-abortion European continent, the government says it can't support the resolution because it believes the ban, which includes prohibiting the cloning human embryos for scientific research, will set back research on key diseases.
However, the government's decision is in conflict with the Irish constitution's protection of the unborn, says Dana Rosemary Scallon, an Irish member of the European Parliament.
The move was also criticized by Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna.
We would be very concerned about this development and it wouldn't be the first time the Government has given a public impression of being conservative about something like this, when behind the scenes they are privately backing it, she said.
An amendment to a European directive on standards for dealing with human tissues and cells would have banned the use of cloned human embryos, animal embryos and combined embryos as sources of transplantation material. However, while the ban of such cloned material was at first supported by Ireland, the government subsequently announced it had changed its mind and would no longer back a ban.
Scallon said the government had done a surprise U-turn and described the decision as regrettable and questionable. The new Irish position is clearly in conflict with our constitutional protection of life from conception, she said.
Ethical guidelines issued by the Irish Medical Council in 1998, prohibit the killing of human lives in IVF and embryo research.
Scallon said European colleagues suggested the Government might be making moves to challenge the constitution to allow therapeutic cloning in Ireland.
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
