The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill: a letter to my MP

MPs will debate the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill next Monday. I have written to Paul Farrelly, the MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, asking him to consider that:

1. While advances in scientific research are of course essential in order to find more and better therapies to tackle disease, not all such research should be supported irrespective of how ethical or effective it is.

2. Adult stem cell research is already used in many therapies, and many more new ones are being tested. Unlike embryonic stem cell research – which has not yet resulted in any therapies at all – adult stem cell research does not involve destroying human embryos.

3. The creation of interspecies embryos is an offence against human dignity, and to pass a law that explicitly allows it is a risk too far.

As David Jones has pointed out (Times Higher Education supplement 1 May), the Bill would "legalise truly crossing the species barrier, with no real public debate and for no scientific reason other than 'why not?'"

4. The Bill's provisions relating to infertility treatment deny a child's natural right to a father as well as a mother – they even deny the child knowledge of the biological father.

5. Apart from the morality of abortion itself, figures showing that many children survive after being born within the current 24-week legal abortion limit (Daily Telegraph 18 April) make it clear to any rational person that the limit should be limited further.

There is a danger that in an entirely proper and understandable desire to support medical research, MPs will enact a set of diverse laws that could have a lasting and very harmful impact. I will watch the debate with interest.

This is the first time I have written to my MP (I am ashamed to say) but it's really easy, thanks to www.writetothem.com.