TWO prominent Queensland pro-life advocates have called on state parliamentarians to vote down an impending bill to enable human cloning.
Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane has also recently sent a letter on behalf of all Queensland bishops to the state’s 88 parliamentarians expressing concerns regarding the bill.
The Research Involving Human Embryos and Prohibition of Human Cloning Amendment Bill 2007 is expected to be debated and put to a conscience vote this month, although the Government has so far refused to nominate a date.
The two pro-life advocates – Queensland Bioethics Centre director, Ray Campbell, and national director of Do No Harm: Australians for Ethical Stem Cell Research, Dr David van Gend – have also been advising parliamentarians in the lead up to a vote on the bill.
Mr Campbell said he supported comments the archbishop made in a recent letter to parliamentarians that “each and every person no matter at what stage of life he or she exists, has a God given dignity that nothing can erase”.
He noted that sections of the media had also recently made claims that rejection of the bill, or even a too-close-to-call outcome, would “tarnish” Queensland’s Smart State image.
This followed surveys of MPs indicating equal support for and against the bill.
“One could of course argue that a vote against cloning might show that Queensland really is the ‘smart state’ and not just a mob of sheep following the dubious lead of others,” Mr Campbell added.
Dr van Gend, who is also a Toowoomba GP and senior university lecturer,
along with a leading stem cell scientist, has been advising groups of parliamentarians in the lead up to the coming vote.
The doctor said there was only one central question facing MPs in the coming vote.
That is: Will parliamentarians allow the creation of living human embryos solely for experimentation and ultimate destruction?
