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PR: Harney Sheepishly Follows Whatever the EU Throws at her
026.11.2003
Today Mary Harney voted in favour of destructive embryo research against the wishes of the Irish people and most of our public representatives. However, at the end of todays Council of Ministers meeting she was left with egg on her face as Germany, Austria, Portugal and Italy formed a blocking minority that prevented the passage of funding for experimentation on unborn human life.
Unfortunately however it doesn’t end here. In true political fashion, the Council sought a compromise on how they could pass experimentation to appease opponents of this funding. A compromise is now in place and will be voted on December 3rd. A complete U-turn was evident tonight when RTE news reported that the Tanaiste was in favour of tighter restrictions. This is not the view she took at the meeting today when she voted in favour of using EU money to fund embryo experimentation.
The compromise that is in place now allows for funding of experiments using embryo stem cell lines harvested from embryos which were killed in that process. Although this may seem like a political solution it is not an ethical one. What we see here is an acknowledgement that experimenting on living human embryos is unethical but using cells from human embryos which were killed for this purpose for experimentation is ethically legitimate. This action completely undermines the dignity which should be afforded to these embryos as human beings. Can we as a society justify using sections of a human person for “spare parts” just because that person is now dead?
The reality of this situation is that the Irish people do not want to fund any type of research that impinges on our pro-life ethos. Abusing stem cell lines from discarded embryos is like removing organs from a dead baby. It cannot be supported by anybody who values and respects the dignity of every human person.
This week Youth Defence will be continuing our campaign against using Irish tax payers money to fund these Nazi style experiments.
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