In the run up to the general election the comments of Opposition leader Michael Howard about lowering the legal limit for social abortions from 24 to 20 weeks have generated a storm of controversy; with the Anglican and Catholic Archbishops both calling for a fresh debate and pictures of babies in the womb once again adorning the front pages of the popular press. The Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that abortion should not be an election issue and has made it clear that he does not welcome further debate in parliament on this most divisive of topics. He doesn't believe that we should 'go the American way' and allow moral issues to dominate the political landscape.

But in fact morality is at the very heart of politics – it is ideological convictions that ultimately drive most politicians and inform public policy and ideological convictions are in turn informed by personal values and a person's worldview, their underlying assumptions about God, the universe and everything. I actually find it refreshing to hear Christian leaders speaking out on important issues and trying to influence the course our nation will take. And I find it incongruous that a government that has taken the moral high ground on so many issues and introduced a record number of over 1,000 new crimes onto the statute books during eight years in office, should suggest that politics and morality should be separated.

I hope that moral issues will play a major role in driving this election and I pray that Christian doctors in particular play a key role in questioning both parties and candidates about their stance on those issues that are dearest to our hearts. I would like to start by asking candidates the following ten questions. Many of these issues are highlighted in the Spring 2005 edition of Triple Helix; and if not are covered in CMF submissions, press releases and articles on the CMF website at www.cmf.org.uk

1. Euthanasia. How will you ensure that euthanasia is not legalised in this country? As I write the Lords' Select Committee considering the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill (Joffe Bill) is about to report and the Mental Capacity Bill giving statutory force to advance refusals for food and fluids is about to be passed into law. Legalised euthanasia draws ever closer.
2. Abortion. What will you do to stem the tide of abortions? With abortions passing 190,000 for the first time last year the current situation is tantamount to abortion on demand. Furthermore, with a clear government policy to provide the technology to offer all parents the choice to eliminate children with genetic disease before birth, we are on the verge of a new eugenics. The Prime Minister himself voted for abortion up until term for 'serious handicap' in 1991.
3. Cloning. How will you act to ensure a total ban on cloning? Despite a recent UN ban on all human cloning the government remains adamant in pressing ahead with the cloning and destruction of human embryos to provide stem cells for treatment of degenerative diseases like Parkinson's and diabetes, when there is both an ethical alternative in adult stem cell technology and an absence of evidence that embryo stem cells are safe or indeed work.
4. Sexual health. What is your policy to arrest the spread of STIs? With a national epidemic of STIs, with the attendant problems of tubal infertility and cervical cancer, we are relentlessly pursuing harm reduction policies like condom and morning-after pill distribution and the proliferation of STI clinics to the exclusion of abstinence based sex education and support of policies aimed at real behaviour change.
5. Poverty and Health. How will you ensure justice in healthcare for the developing world? Britain still only gives a fraction of the internationally agreed minimum of 0.7% of GDP in overseas aid, encourages the plundering of trained health professionals from the developed world, and engages in unjust economic trade practices through subsidies, tariffs and the encouragement of developing world indebtedness.
6. Freedom of worship. How will you ensure that Christians are able to practise, share and defend their faith without being prosecuted? The incitement to religious hatred clause in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill, as currently construed, constitutes a major threat to the freedom to evangelise and engage in interfaith dialogue involving challenging the truth claims of other ideologies, worldviews and religions.
7. Marriage and family. What will you do to affirm, protect and support the traditional family? Marriage and the family are the fundamental building blocks of a stable society; but the status and stability of marriage and the family are being eroded by easy divorce and the removal of economic and social support for the traditional family unit relative to other 'models'.
8. Addiction. How will you act to reduce alcohol, nicotine, drug and gambling addiction? Present policy is aimed more at harm reduction than at restricting access (through price control) and effecting behaviour change.
9. Obesity and Inactivity. What will you do to encourage the general population to adopt a healthy diet and get regular exercise?
10. Marginalised groups. How will you ensure that vulnerable groups like the elderly, the mentally ill, ethnic minorities and asylum seekers receive an adequate basic level of healthcare and are not marginalised in healthcare allocation?

It is God who establishes governing authorities, and it is to him that they are ultimately accountable (Romans 13:1-7). Our political leaders need our prayers (1 Timothy 2: 1,2) but God has also given us a part to play in who actually exercises civil authority. Each of us will make our own decisions on which candidates and party we vote for on election day; but we need to ensure that we exercise our votes wisely, thoughtfully and from a position of being fully informed on the issues. The biblical exhortations to 'enquire, probe and investigate thoroughly' (Deuteronomy 13:14) and to 'administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another' (Zechariah 7:9) are just as true today as when they were first spoken.

Peter Saunders
CMF General Secretary