Spare the whip?

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is at the centre of a row between rebel Labour MPs and a Government intent on pushing the bill through Parliament. The Government may yet be forced to back down.

My tutor, Profs Jones got 100 professors (with hugely varied opinions on the content of the bill) to sign a letter to the Times putting forward the position that it should be a free conscience vote.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article3498524.ece

I am in two minds. There are parts of the bill such as amendment to the consideration of a child's 'need for a father' and other issues that should be left to the conscience.

However I sympathise with the government since whipping the amendments would prevent MPs voting against for spurious reasons or due to a misunderstanding/ misinterpretation of the science involved. This is especially true with chimeras (cybrids) and hybrids. I realised the extent of the problem when a very nice and well meaning person handed me a card to petition my MP to vote against. The card was misleading people to believe the amendments proposed would lead to the creation of a monster.

The creation of cybrid eggs (a human nucleus in a non-human animal egg because of the shortage of human eggs available for research) is really for the creation of embryos to produce stem cells. There won't be any hybrid animals gestated and born. Those in favour will try to convince you that this will certainly and directly lead to cure/ treatment for various diseases but this I feel is an exagerated claim. I think stem cell research will lead to a greater understanding of developmental biology which may aid the development of treatments.

Anyway, I am undecided as to whether it should be whipped through parliament. I have sympathies with both sides.

j