Family & Life

The Irish Council for Bioethics Criticised for Being ‘Utilitarian’ : 20th May 08

"The idea of the Irish Council for Bioethics granting 'significant moral value'' to human embryos would be amusing if it were not so arrogant"

The Irish Council for Bioethics has been criticised for approving research on human IVF embryos. Spokesman for the Irish Catholic Bishops Commission on Bioethics, Fr Kevin Doran, wrote that it had been wrong to talk in terms of giving rights to embryos, since such rights derived from their nature and were human rights which could not be granted.

He also said the council was being utilitarian by suggesting that, while it was reluctant to permit the destruction of embryos, it might allow the practice if it was useful. The idea of the Irish Council for Bioethics according to Fr Doran granting ''significant moral value'' to human embryos would be amusing if it were not so arrogant.

The council said it was adopting ''a gradualist position, granting significant moral value, rather than full moral status, to human embryos''[...]''The moral value they are seen to possess is based on recognition of their potential to develop into persons, as well as the value they derive from representing human life in its earliest stages," the group said.

Fr Doran told the Sunday Business post "The Catholic perspective is that the rights of the embryo derive from its nature and, in that sense, are human rights, the kind that would be described in some documents as self-evident. Such rights are not assigned or granted (as the report now suggests). The obligation to respect life begins at the point when individual human life begins - or even when there is a reasonable possibility that it may have begun.

"The opinion of the Irish Council for Bioethics does not reflect the outcome of its public consultation"

The underlying ethos of the council's opinion according to Fr Doran is predominantly utilitarian. In effect it says: ''We would prefer not to destroy embryos, but if it seems to serve a useful purpose, we will."

"Crucially" Fr Doran says "the opinion of the Irish Council for Bioethics does not reflect the outcome of its public consultation. A huge majority of the public responses were opposed to research using embryonic stem cells, the generation of embryos specifically for research or the generation of hybrid human animal embryos." Sunday Business Post. CLICK TO READ MORE.....

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Family & Life

The Irish Council for Bioethics Criticised for Being ‘Utilitarian’ : 20th May 08

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