Embryology bill 'will allow Nazi practices'

Published on 29/10/2008 08:55

THE leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics has claimed controversial embryology laws pave the way for practices "last seen under the Nazis".

In an open letter to Gordon Brown, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who is also the Archbishop of St Andrew's in Edinburgh, branded the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill "misguided".

He said the Bill, being debated in the House of Lords today, would allow tissue to be taken from incapacitated adults and children without their consent.

He said: "The grotesque implications of these procedures are utterly horrifying. Removing parts of people's bodies without consent utterly flies in the face of BMA and GMC guidance. Such behaviour was last seen under the Nazis.

"The Bill seeks, by stealth, to create a regime where extracting tissue and cells from human beings no longer requires their consent or involvement."