Why does it seem to be only Catholics who care about embryos

There's been huge controversy over this week's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, but why do the most high-profile opponents always seem to be Catholics? Religion Correspondent Alf McCreary goes in search of the original protesters — Protestants

Thursday, May 22, 2008

This is not so, but comments from Protestant leaders and those of other faiths in the run-up to the debate have been noticably scarce in comparison.

Catholic clergy, including Cardinal O'Brien in Scotland and Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor in Westminster, made their views known long ago about the morality of proposals to use animal material such as a combination of cows' eggs and human DNA to create stem cells.

The scientists, in turn, argued that such experiments were justified in the search to cure Parkinson's, motor neurone disease, diabetes and other illnesses.

However, they still received some hefty clerical broadsides — including Cardinal O' Brien's earlier claim that such experiments were "monstrous" .

There was even speculation that devout Catholic Cabinet members, including Northern Ireland-born Ruth Kelly and Paul Murphy, were threatening to resign over the Bill unless Prime Minister Gordon Brown allowed them a free vote.

He did so, however, and his Labour colleagues were able to vote 'according to conscience'.

In the event, MPs voted to allow the rules on the use of animal-human experiments to be relaxed, though notably a large number of Westminster MPs from different parties in Northern Ireland opposed the changes.

So far this controversy was reported by the media as an almost exclusively Catholic tussle with the Government.

Does this mean that millions of Protestants and people of other faiths in the United Kingdom do not have a conscience about such matters? Far from it.

The fact is, however, that the Reformed Church leaders have not made such a public fuss as their Catholic brethren, and there has been hardly a cheep from Islam, or other faiths, on the issue.

Despite their lack of direct comment on the Embryology Bill, Protestant leaders — as well as Catholics — are deeply worried about the implications of experiments which some believe could lead to a 'Frankenstein' nightmare of meddling with the origin of life.

The trouble is that Protestants don't do 'conscience protests' very well — unless they are Ulster Presbyterians who discriminate against women ministers preaching in their pulpits, or object to shared worship with Catholics 'on grounds of conscience'.

On complex matters of science, the talk about 'conscience' tends to dry up.

There is also the received wisdom that Catholics are big on issues like abortion and stem cell research, and that if their leaders want to make the running on these issues, the Protestants are happy to let them do so.

However, the three Protestant Church leaders here — Archbishop Alan Harper, Presbyterian Moderator Dr John Finlay and Methodist President the Rev Roy Cooper — did join Cardinal Sean Brady in writing to Westminster MPs prior to this week's abortion vote.

They all supported the local political leaders' assertion that the law on abortion in Northern Ireland should be a matter to be dealt with by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Nevertheless they were strongly criticised by Canon Ian Ellis, editor of the independent Church of Ireland Gazette, for allegedly telling MPs how to vote and for taking "a step too far in moral leadership".

So they may be forgiven for thinking that they are in a no-win situation.

The Church leaders apart, if ordinary Protestants and Catholics care deeply about these controversial issues what can they do?

They can lobby their own clergy and laity, but by the time a Church committee gets round to making a statement, most people have forgotten what the issue is about.

Protestants, as well as Catholics, can lobby their MPs, but the purpose of a 'free vote' is to allow the individuals to choose according to their conscience

There is, however, a third way. Protestants and Catholics can speak through the media by writing to the papers and taking part in chat shows.

In this respect they could learn much from the atheists and the humanists who rarely miss an opportunity of putting forward their points of view on the matter.

However, the Churches will be able to take some comfort from the controversy that has arisen over the abortion laws and the embryology Bill.

Even in a secular society, the collective power of senior Catholic clergy has shown that they can make the Prime Minister, his Cabinet, eminent scientists and the media take notice.

It's a pity, however, that the Reformed Churches who take their name from being 'Protestants' largely seem to have forgotten how to protest publicly on such an imaginative scale.