HFE Bill

Threat to human dignity: animal-human hybrids.
The government proposes to create entities which combine animal and human genetic material in every cell ('cybrids', chimeras and mixed species fertilised embryos) in order to generate embryonic stem cells for research. Originally planning to ban hybrids because of public concern, they caved in to pressure from ideologically driven scientists and the financially driven biotechnology industry. Ironically, new research in both Japan and the USA published last November – reprogramming adult skin cells back to produce cells with all the potential of human embryonic stem cells – makes these plans obsolete.

Threat to the family: commodifying children and creating them fatherless.
There are proposals to extend the indications for so-called 'saviour siblings' to provide transplant material for children with haematological and malignant disorders. These will further commodify children, using them as a means to an end. Removing the requirement to consider the need for a father for children created by IVF will further damage families and society. Research shows that children with fathers, in stable families, are healthier, happier, and do better in education and employment. CMF upholds the God-given ideal for families. No-one has an absolute right to have a child of their choosing, in their way, at their time, and for their own purposes.

Threat to human life itself: liberalising abortion law.
The HFE Bill lays the 1967 Abortion Act (last modified in 1990's HFE Act) open to amendments. As if 6.7 million abortions, with almost one in four pregnancies ending in abortion, aren't enough, there is a concerted move amongst pro-choice MPs, abortion providers and institutions like the RCOG and BMA to push for further liberalisation of the law. They aim to bring in abortion on demand in the first trimester by ending the requirement for two doctors' signatures, allowing nurse-led medical abortion in GP surgeries with completion at home, barring prolife doctors from seeing women with unplanned pregnancies and extending the Act to Northern Ireland.

What can we do?

It is now too late to influence events in the House of Lords, but not too late for the Commons. MPs take letters and visits from constituents very seriously and most are profoundly uninformed or misinformed about the contents and effects of this Bill. Christian doctors and medical students have a real opportunity to influence the way MPs will vote on these crucial issues.

Please write to your MP

Please write to your MP. You can find out the name of your MP online at www.parliament.uk/people/index.cfm or by phone at the House of Commons information Office on 020 7219 4272. You can write to your MP at the House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA or email them at www.writetothem.com (all you need is your postcode)

Please urge your MP to support one or more of the following amendments to the Bill:

• Ban on animal human hybrids
• Ban on saviour siblings
  
• Ban on GM babies with two mothers and one father (cloning to avoid mitochondrial disease)
• Requirement to consider the need for a father for IVF children
  
• Lowering of the 24 week upper limit for abortion
  
• Ending of abortion up to term for disabled babies
  
• Properly informed consent about risks and alternatives for women seeking abortion

Please urge them also to oppose the following amendments:

• The use of banked human tissue for therapeutic cloning without the knowledge or consent of the donors
• Removal of the requirement for two doctors' signatures to certify abortion
  
• Abortions to be performed by nurses and other health professionals
  
• Relaxation of current rules relating to 'approved premises' to allow GP surgery and home abortion
• Removal of the right for doctors with any objection to abortion to see patients with unplanned pregnancies
• Extension of the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland
  

How to write

• Be polite, concise and to the point
• Limit your letter to one, or at very most two, sides of A4
• Say that you are a doctor or medical student and a member of their constituency
• Focus just on one, or at most two, issues that you are most concerned about
• When opposing any measure in the bill make reference also to ethical alternatives
• Put your arguments in your own words and refer to your own experience

Other approaches to consider

• Write to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown asking the government to withdraw the whip on this bill so that government MPs and Peers may vote according to conscience and on the basis of the evidence with respect to fertilisation/embryology issues (a conscience vote on abortion has already been promised)
• Make an appointment to visit your MP to discuss one, or at most two, aspects of the bill
• Hold a meeting in your church to inform fellow Christians and mobilise them to pray and write

You will find lots of additional information on these pages of our website. Please also feel free to email us for further information or advice at hfebill@cmf.org.uk.

We will keep the web pages regularly updated with links to resource material and with more detailed CMF briefing papers on each issue covered in the bill that you can use in compiling your letters. There will also be links to information about MPs' past voting records which may help you in how to approach writing.

Throughout the passage of the bill CMF will be working in conjunction with partner organisations to ensure that MPs and Peers are well informed about the issues and that our arguments are heard. Thank you for all you are doing and most of all please pray about all this and urge your churches to do the same.