Madam, - I am writing in relation to the Government's eleventh-hour claim that the upcoming Council of Ministers' vote on EU funding for destructive embryonic research is primarily a matter of securing strong Europe-wide guidelines and regulations. This is patently untrue and requires immediate clarification if the Government, and the Tánaiste's office in particular, are not to leave themselves open to allegations of intentionally misleading the public.
The facts of the matter are straightforward. The question of EU funding and associated guidelines for such EU-funded research has no impact whatsoever on the existing national laws of member-states regarding embryonic stem cell experimentation in general. It is utterly disingenuous to suggest that by voting Yes, Ireland will have any say over how the majority of stem-cell research (i.e. non-EU funded) in Europe takes place. The Tánaiste's fears about a future "free for all" in experimentation are already a reality with the explicitly permissive attitude of the UK to embryo research - and no result of the EU vote will change that.
On the contrary, voting No against the proposed guidelines will freeze the funding that has been earmarked for such research and thereby ensure that Irish, German, Italian and Portuguese taxpayers will not have to pay for something that is either illegal or rejected as morally repugnant in their own countries.
Destructive embryo research literally turns early human lives into human guinea pigs. In addition to being ethically dubious, however, it is also scientifically dubious. Adult stem cell research, in particular with umbilical cord blood, is clinically established as a more successful and rewarding field of study. Why can we not direct common EU funds to such worthwhile projects? They are both ethically and scientifically preferable and are acceptable to all member states. Why must we ride rough shod over the democratic rights of those countries and their citizens who wish to protect and respect the inherent dignity of every individual human life?
Embryo research is essentially an exploitative practice. First, it exploits and destroys individual early human lives. Second, it exploits the hopes and desperation of those with terminal illness by outlandish promises of miracle cures that there is as yet no evidence to support. Finally, it exploits those couples seeking to have a child through the often heart-breaking process of IVF by cajoling them into turning their offspring into a population of laboratory stock.
It is no coincidence that such research is banned under the German constitution. Germans, more so than anyone else, know exactly how the blunt utilitarian calculus of such exploitative experimentation is such an affront to human dignity and human rights. We need to listen and learn from their experience as a nation - and not disrespect them or their insights by voting Yes and thus forcing them to fund destructive human embryo experimentation in other EU countries. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL BRADY, Belmont Avenue, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
Madam, - The many articles and excellent letters which have appeared in your paper over the past week or so are evidence of the widespread concern about and grasp of the fundamental ethical issues involved in the current debate on proposed EU funding for destructive stem-cell research on human embryos.
Is it not quite incredible, then, that in his/her column last Saturday Drapier could dismiss this whole moral and ethical quagmire as simply another "women's issue" and one on which, in his/her estimation, the only politicians who seem to have the right-on handle are the three female senators named by him/her who spoke during the senate debate on the issue?
Is Drapier really serious, or just intellectually lazy? - Yours, etc.,
Mrs D. BOURKE, Lee Road, Cork.