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EU Again Set to Fund Embryo Research

by Hilary White
 
BRUSSELS, June 7, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) is urging its supporters in Britain, Ireland and the rest of the European Union to ask their MEPs to reject EU funding of cloning and embryo research.
 
For at least four years, the European Union has been seeking to fund the creation of cloned human embryos and their use to obtain human stem cells. The practice is allowed in some member states such as Britain, but in Germany and in Catholic countries such as Poland there is still strong public opposition.
 
In 2002 the EU announced that funding would be delayed until the end of 2003. In December 2003, the EU again delayed passing legislation that would make funding available for the research because of objections from Germany, Italy, Portugal, Austria and Luxembourg.
 
SPUC says that at the end of May the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) approved a draft report with serious anti-life amendments. The report will be presented to a full parliamentary session for adoption on Wednesday 14 June. The parliament will vote then on whether to permit the killing of human embryos for research purposes.
 
The British-based pro-life organization is calling on its supporters to contact their Members of the European Parliament to demand that they defeat this proposal that would make 2 billion Euros available for the experiments.
 
The Executive Committee of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community issued a statement urging the MEP’s to fund ethical adult stem cell research and condemning work that resulted in the death of human beings at the embryonic stage.
 
“Treating the human embryo as an object for research is not compatible with human dignity,” the bishops said. “By taking such a decision the EU would show that it respects the fundamental values and grounds upon which some member states prohibit or restrict this research out of respect for the inviolability of human life and its dignity.”
 
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
EU at Impasse on Cloning and Embryo Research Restrictions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06031406.html

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