Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/advocacy/pressrelease/?id=28
Published: 16th July 2004
In an unprecedented nationwide consultation announced today by The Human Genetics Commission [HGC], the public is being asked to respond to a wide range of issues ranging from screening of embryos and genetic research, to fertility treatments and the prospect of designer babies. The three month consultation, Choosing the Future, runs until 15 October and can be assessed by visiting the Human Genetics Commission website at www.hgc.gov.uk.
Peter Saunders, General Secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship, whilst encouraging Christians to fully participate in the consultation process, voiced his concerns over this latest announcement and other recent developments in medical ethics. “The HGC consultation is sadly much more about eugenics than designer babies. For some years leading medical voices have shamelessly promoted search and destroy techniques for Down's syndrome on the grounds that the costs are less than a lifetime of care.
“Presently over 90% of babies diagnosed with Down's syndrome before birth in the UK are aborted. Making antenatal screening available for a wide range of other genetic conditions, as the government intends, will inevitably lead to more prenatal eradication of children with Special Needs, supposedly in the interests of 'free choice' and 'sound economics'.
Saunders continued; “Recent high profile cases of late abortions for trivial abnormalities have provoked a huge degree of public disquiet. The supreme irony is that antenatal 'search and destroy' is being heavily promoted at a time when the management of previously untreatable or unpreventable conditions is advancing faster than ever before, and advances in research are offering huge promise for people with genetic disorders.
“We should not minimise the considerable physical, financial and psychological cost of raising children with special needs, but the way we treat the most vulnerable members of our community speaks volumes about the sort of society that we are.
“It is therefore essential that Christians accept the opportunity to play a full part in the consultation process, and that a Christian voice of reason is heard by both government and the medical profession. It is also essential that as Christians we are at the forefront of providing support for the families of special needs children.”
A full copy of Choosing the Future is available at www.hgc.gov.uk/Client/document.asp?DocId=33
Steven Fouch (CMF Head of Communications) 020 7234 9668
Alistair Thompson on 07970 162 225
Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) was founded in 1949 and is an interdenominational organisation with over 5,000 doctors, 900medical and nursing students and 300 nurses and midwives as members in all branches of medicine, nursing and midwifery. A registered charity, it is linked to over 100 similar bodies in other countries throughout the world.
CMF exists to unite Christian healthcare professionals to pursue the highest ethical standards in Christian and professional life and to increase faith in Christ and acceptance of his ethical teaching.
