The Catholic priests' attitude versus the government's attitude towards embryo research is interesting.
Here we have a religious `pressure group' attempting to dictate government policy. Call me any name you want for suggesting this (I have a tortoise shell skin, a result of Frankenstein research), but is there much difference between this and the conservative mullahs in Iran dictating government policy?
The government is the elected government, whatever our views about it might be, and as far as I'm aware (could easily be wrong) the Conservatives are also in favour of embryo research.
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Catholic priests are individuals and are just as free to have a political opinion as anyone else is.

However, they are deeply wrong on this one - as they are on many things.

The Catholic church is a pretty sinister organisation with a terrible history, so its probably better, like the EU, if it has a very limited role in British politics.
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You don't have to be a Catholic to object to the Frankenstein-like activities of today's medical madmen.

They are now seeking to create embryos that are half man, half beast. If it were left to me I would lock them in the deepest dungeons and throw away the keys.
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Originally Posted by Smidgey:
Catholic priests are individuals and are just as free to have a political opinion as anyone else is.

However, they are deeply wrong on this one - as they are on many things.

The Catholic church is a pretty sinister organisation with a terrible history, so its probably better, like the EU, if it has a very limited role in British politics.

I couldn't agree more!
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What suprises me is that the government did not see this one coming, they whipped through gay adoption and that caused a stink and now they are trying to do the same here. These are matters of consicence and people should not have to face comprimising thier beleifs in this way.

There should be a free vote on this matter completly free of government interference in the form of the whips. As should votes concerning sexuality and abortion.

The reason the Catholic Churches voice is so prominant is becasue alike many christians they are feed up with having there rights to worship and practice infringed.


Smidgey is right to point to there right to a say in this matter but he and others should not worry about undue influence from the church, the church will give advice to its flock, that is its job but as indviduals we make our own decisions whether to follow them or not.

I personally hope this legislation is thrown out and that if christians are faced with there careers or thier consiences then I hope they will choose the latter unlike the gay adoption vote which saw catholics like Ruth Kelly supporting the government.
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Originally Posted by Mikeuk:
You don't have to be a Catholic to object to the Frankenstein-like activities of today's medical madmen.

They are now seeking to create embryos that are half man, half beast. If it were left to me I would lock them in the deepest dungeons and throw away the keys.

i agree with you mikeuk they are going to far with this kind of thing i think its over the top to play with nature in such ways,and i am not a religious person my self. mind you they have been playing around with human /animal embryos for a very long time, just take a look at brown he looks like he is half man and half beast :-)

yours the minator :-)
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Originally Posted by Mikeuk:
You don't have to be a Catholic to object to the Frankenstein-like activities of today's medical madmen.

They are now seeking to create embryos that are half man, half beast. If it were left to me I would lock them in the deepest dungeons and throw away the keys.

They are never allowed to get past a certain level of growth. The health applications of such research could be phenomenal.

Galileo was seen as terrible when he made his discoveries and the doctors of old who worked on human cadavers were seen as unethical - yet look at us now, without them we would be decades behind what we currently are in physics/astronomy and probably at least a century in medical science.
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Originally Posted by rjt:
There should be a free vote on this matter completly free of government interference in the form of the whips. As should votes concerning sexuality and abortion.

I should hope that there is a free vote on every issue. Who is to decide what is an issue of conscience?

I would think raising taxes is an issue of conscience too.

Other than this, I agree with everything you write Rjt.
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I don't think there should be a vote at all. The scientist must be free from petty and false ethics, the artist must be free from the censor and the strong must not be held back by the weak; regardless of how luddites vote.

We are talking about experimentation on the non-living. Irrational beings which cannot hold an opinion, and which cannot respect the rights of the living. If something is incapable of mutual respect for rights, then it is unable to possess rights of its own.

We are talking about inhuman parasites like this
Image

We can sacrifice infinite amounts, providing we have the consent of their owners, to cure one living man and it would be far more moral than the repulsive priests who denounce it.
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Originally Posted by tito:
I don't think there should be a vote at all. The scientist must be free from petty and false ethics, the artist must be free from the censor and the strong must not be held back by the weak; regardless of how luddites vote.

There speaks the same voice of intolerant inhuman rationalism that advocated experiments on living human beings in concentration camps 'for the good of the many'

Originally Posted by :
We are talking about inhuman parasites like this
Image

Looks rather more human than the thing on the left of your message with its wig the wrong way round.
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