Cameron takes Brown to task over conscience vote
By Anna Arco
21 March 2008

Conservative leader David Cameron has urged the Prime Minister to grant Labour MPs a free vote on a Bill to legalise the creation of animal-human embryos for destructive experiments.

Mr Cameron clashed with Gordon Brown during Prime Minister's Questions last week, calling on him to follow the Tory Party's lead and allow free votes on matters of conscience. "You say you are going to make a decision. Why not break the habit of a lifetime and make the decision now and tell us what it is?" asked Mr Cameron. "Tell us today, can we have free votes on all of the conscience issues in this Bill - yes or no?"

He severely criticised the Goverment for driving the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Bill through the House of Lords with a three-line whip. This means that if peers opposed it they risked being expelled from the Government.

Mr Cameron pointed out that the last time a Bill on fertility legislation came up in the 1990s, tabled by the Conservative government, there had been a conscience vote for all MPs and peers.

Contentious elements of the Bill include legislation allowing for the creation of hybrid human-animal stem cells, the possible creation of "saviour siblings" and removing consideration of a child's need for a biological father.

Mr Brown replied that MPs were to be given a vote of conscience on amendments in the Bill concerning abortion, which is a normal procedure, but said a decision on a free vote on the other aspects of the Bill would be "made in the normal way". He said that the Government respected "the conscience of every Member of the House in this matter".

Three prominent Catholic members of the Cabinet, Des Browne, Ruth Kelly and Paul Murphy, have voiced their concerns over the Bill to the Chief Whip, Geoff Hoon, who has given MPs permission to abstain from voting on the more controversial parts of the Bill but has intimated that there would be severe consequences for anyone who voted against it.

Recommendations for a vote of conscience for Labour MPs on the ethical issues raised in the Bill came from a Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament last year.

In a letter to the Prime Minister following their exchange Mr Cameron said: "In light of this, I find it difficult to understand why you could not give a straightforward commitment yesterday to continuing what the Government itself acknowledges is an historical tradition of granting free votes on ethical issues. Perhaps you could do so now."

According to an article in the Financial Times two MPs said that a free vote for Labour MPs is unlikely to make a difference as there are enough "progressives" in the other parties to counter objecting votes.

Calls for a free vote have come from all corners. Two weeks ago prominent academics wrote an open letter to the Times which condemned the three-line whip and called for a vote of conscience on "ethical questions".

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor called for a free vote on the HFE Bill and the Church has condemned the Bill, calling for Catholics to stand up against it. The Bill opens up the possibility of amendments being made to the Abortion Act, namely lowering the 24-week period in which abortions can be performed.

While Mr Cameron has said he is in favour of reducing the abortion period from 24 weeks to 20, he also made clear that he supports abortions up to birth for children with disabilities.

Meanwhile, the great-great-grandson of the abolitionist William Wilberforce has compared the plight of unborn children with that of the slaves his ancestor helped liberate. He said his great-great-grandfather would be opposed to abortion.

Fr Gerard Wilberforce, a Catholic priest in Exeter, told worshippers that the HFE Bill presented an opportunity to amend the Abortion Act.

He said: "With the number of abortions having reached 200,000 per year in the UK alone, the time is right to tighten up the law that was designed to protect women by ending illegal abortion, but never to allow such a high degree of deprived life.

"There are great similarities between the status of the foetus and the status of African slaves two centuries ago. Slaves were considered a commodity to do with whatever the vested interests of the day decided. Today, in our desire to play God in our embryology experimentation, with all its unfulfilled promises of miracle cures, and our decision to abort unwanted children, we are no better than those slave traders who put their interests and world view higher than they placed the sanctity and value of human life."