Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/advocacy/pressrelease/?id=42
Published: 16th February 2005
In the wake of news that the creator of Dolly the Sheep has been granted a licence to clone human embryos for medical research, the Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) today accused the Government and the scientific community of a deliberate failure to highlight the more ethical alternative of adult stem cell research, in an article published in its Winter edition of Triple Helix.
Peter Saunders, General Secretary of the CMF, said: 'The British media and public have been consistently misled into seeing cloned embryos as a panacea for treating degenerative diseases through the Government’s failure or unwillingness to highlight the dangers and to rectify misconceptions about the properties of the more ethical alternative of adult stem cells. Such selective interpretation and presentation of scientific data is both irresponsible and dangerous because it falsely raises the hopes of vulnerable people.'
The full text of Peter Saunder’s review of the latest developments in the stem cell debate, featured in the winter edition of Triple Helix, can be downloaded from http://beta.cmf.org.uk/. Also included in the current edition is a look at the controversy surrounding the rights of parents to smack their children from a doctor’s perspective, an endorsement of the proposal to ban smoking in public places and an update on the current debates surrounding euthanasia, sexual health and eugenics.
The January edition of Nucleus, CMF’s quarterly student journal, also published recently, contains articles on ‘Intelligent Design’ (an alternative to Darwinian theory), witnessing to patients, and how to ‘deal with miracles’. Each of these articles is available from the CMF website, at www.cmf.org.uk
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.
