MANCHESTER, England (CNS): A British archbishop has criticised reports of new research that harvested eggs from aborted foetuses could be used for in vitro fertilisation treatment.
“There is something deeply wrong with a society that can even contemplate harvesting eggs from the ovaries of aborted foetuses,” said Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, Wales.
“How is it that we can recognise that the aborted foetus is human enough to become a biological parent and yet not human enough to have the right to life?” the archbishop said.
Another British pro-life leader said the proposed technique would repulse “most normal people”.
“Who would want to know that their mother was an aborted baby?” said Nuala Scarisbrick, a trustee with the British pro-life organisation Life.
The new research was released during the June 29-July 2 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Madrid, Spain.
Speaking on June 30, one researcher, Dr Tal Biron-Shental of Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, Israel, acknowledged that the concept of taking egg follicles from an aborted baby was controversial.
Leading fertility expert Lord Robert Winston was reported by the BBC as saying that the concept was not only a long way from reality, but unnecessary, because alternative, more ethical options were being developed.
“There is a widespread objection by about 80 per cent of the British population who feel that using aborted foetuses is repugnant,” he said.
