State is ‘immoral’ for failing to protect the unborn, says bishop
By Anna Arco
30 May 2008

Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue of Lancaster has strongly attacked the House of Commons over last week's vote on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, accusing MPs of immorality, intolerance and utilitarianism.

The bishop said that last week's vote, which defeated amendments to ban human-animal embryos, the creation of "saviour siblings" and to reduce the abortion time limit, showed that the House of Commons had perpetuated the immoral use of power over the unborn.

He said: "The state has no moral right to exclude the most vulnerable stage of dependency from the legal protection granted to human life. Any state that accepts the arbitrary use of power over others is immoral."

"Personhood," he said, "is not something granted by the choice of another, but is an inherent right dependent on the fact of existence. From the moment of conception the unborn human being is genetically unique from his or her mother and father. The unborn child is a completely new and different living being.

"During the 19th century, slavers said black people weren't human. They were wrong. During the 20th century, the Nazis said the Jews weren't human. They were wrong. Since 1967, the House of Commons has said the unborn are not human. They, too, are wrong."

He argued that our society had so "cheapened and violated human life that it does not hear or understand the language of wonder about the unborn". He added that a "dangerous myth appears to be growing that the only knowledge that can inform policy making is scientific research".

Bishop O'Donoghue accused the Commons of a "flawed, selective approach to science" and a "misuse of science to justify the continued exploitation and disposal of society's most vulnerable members". He said: "Compassion cannot result in the exploitation and destruction of unborn human persons. It is also a misuse of science to employ medical judgments concerning the 'viability' of the unborn child's development as the only consideration that grants the most fundamental of human rights - the right to life."

He said that the Church's strong stand against abortion and the experimentation on embryos did not mean that all those who had had an abortion or voted for the legislation were evil but that the Church had a duty to "constantly remind society that the act of intentionally killing the unborn embryo or child is always of itself evil".

Thanking the MPs who had tabled the amendments and had voted "in defence of unborn human life", the bishop called on all people of faith, whether "Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Christian, who believe in the sanctity of unborn human life, to join with the Catholic Church in redoubling their efforts in the continuing campaign for a change in these laws".

Bishop O'Donoghue's condemnation came as pro-life campaigners' renewed their determination to fight against the contentious parts of the HFE Bill.

It also coincided with a statement from Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who called the debate in the House of Commons last week "one of the most significant" of recent times.

In an article in the Daily Telegraph the Cardinal said that the argument was far from over and called for the creation of a statutory national bioethics commission.

He said that crucial questions had not yet been answered, such as "What is it to be a human being? What conditions do we need for our flourishing? In what sort of society can we put our faith and know that we are cherished and valued and above all enabled to grow in our search for what is right and true?"

The cardinal said: "This week's debate does not mark the end of the discussion but in fact, paradoxically, opens up the possibility of one that is much deeper.

"I hope this can become a conversation for everyone marked by a new openness and mutual respect in which we have much to learn from each other. This is because it is a common search about nothing less than the ultimate truth of who we are and what we are called to become."