Scotland’s two most senior Catholics, Cardinal Keith O’Brien and Archbishop Mario Conti have written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown asking him to urgently review the timetable for the ongoing public consultation on the “Human tissue and embryology Bill” arguing elements of the draft legislation could be very harmful to the long term welfare of children.

In their letter, sent on Friday 13 July, they highlight the proposal to remove the current reference in legislation to a child’s need for a father, saying “this means that prior to provision of fertility treatment, there will no longer be any requirement, nor guidance, to consider the child’s need for a father.” They claim the proposal in Part 3 of the proposed Bill constitutes “a sweeping attempt to rewrite traditional concepts of parenthood and the family.”

Cardinal O’Brien and Archbishop Conti conclude; “We believe that the state should not deny the child’s need for a father nor ignore a wealth of social research findings upholding the notion that deliberately planning to have fatherless children is inimical to their long-term welfare.”


ENDS

Peter Kearney ?Director
Catholic Media Office
5 St. Vincent Place
Glasgow
G1 2DH
0141 221 1168
pk@scmo.org
www.scmo.org


Notes to Editors:

1. The full text of the letter to Gordon Brown is shown below.
2. Link to Parliamentary Consultation - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt/jtembryos.htm

13 July 2007

Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, M.P.
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
LONDON
SWlA 2AA

Dear Gordon,

HUMAN TISSUE AND EMBRYOLOGY BILL

In your statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday outlining the Government's plans for the next session of Parliament you rightly claimed that legislation should be “the subject of widespread and informed public consultation". Among the items you mentioned was The Draft Bill on Human Tissue and Embryos. This is currently under scrutiny by a Joint Committee of the two Houses of Parliament. It is a complex and lengthy document but many of its proposals have already been the subject of considerable public consultation and discussion.

In particular those proposing the creation of animal/human hybrid embryos for research, and the extended use of human embryos for experimentation have been widely debated. We wish here to draw specific attention to other issues in the Draft Bill, which have had very little public airing, and which we feel should be the focus of extended and major public consultation before these matters are presented to Parliament. The draft legislation proposes to remove the current reference in legislation to a child’s need for a father. This means that prior to provision of fertility treatment, there will no longer be any requirement, nor guidance, to consider the child’s need for a father. Paradoxically, consideration of the ‘welfare of the child’ will remain a duty for clinics.

The proposals, contained primarily in Part 3 of the proposed Bill, constitute a sweeping attempt to rewrite traditional concepts of parenthood and the family. They have been devised to accommodate the huge variety of new technologies that have followed in the wake of in vitro fertilisation, and which facilitate the creation of children without any deference to historical social traditions or indeed to natural biology. We believe that the state should not deny the child’s need for a father nor ignore a wealth of social research findings upholding the notion that deliberately planning to have fatherless children is inimical to their long-term welfare.

The Joint Committee, which is conducting a consultation on the Bill, will be sitting for a mere two months, over the summer and during the Parliamentary Recess. We do not believe that there has been anywhere near sufficient 'widespread and informed public consultation' on the matters in question and that to proceed in haste with regard to issues of such grave importance is both improper and dangerous.

We ask you now to act with some urgency to ensure that these very important considerations are given the time they merit.

Yours sincerely

+ Keith Patrick Cardinal O’Brien + Most Reverend Mario J. Conti
Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh Archbishop of Glasgow
President Vice President
Bishops’ Conference of Scotland Bishops’ Conference of Scotland