Campaigners demand national bioethics watchdog

Pro-life campaigners have applauded Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor's appeal to the Prime Minister to establish a bioethics watchdog to advise on the moral issues involved in biotechnology. Professor Jack Scarisbrick, national chairman of LIFE, said: " This is urgent. Biotechnology is now a runaway bus. It must be subject to moral restraints. To say this is not to be anti-science. Every human activity should be governed by moral norms. "Mr Blair thinks otherwise. He has publicly stated that there should be no moral constraints on what happens in laboratories and is an enthusiast for cloning, genetic screening and all the latest forms of human embryo abuse. "The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is a toothless watchdog. Its members are either people with vested interests in IVF and cloning or they are shameless utilitarians. It is typical of it that its so-called ethics committee should include the Anglican Bishop of Oxford, Richard Harries, a cloning enthusiast. "This country should follow the example of many European countries, Australia and the USA, and set up a high-powered bioethics commission with the power to halt Britain's mindless descent into a nightmare of eugenics and manipulation of human life."