all lawful endeavours

The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill. It requires “all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life and the life of others;” it forbids “the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbour, unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth thereunto.”

The House of Commons has decided that hybrid embryo research and ‘saviour siblings’ are to be legal in case it helps to save lives. But their decision is not lawful. It is utterly inconsistent with the moral law to treat human beings as if they were animals, and to treat human beings as if they were commodities to be created and destroyed and stripped down for parts which may or may not be useful to others. Licensing scientists to go ahead with these kinds of activities is far from a lawful means of preserving life: rather it tends to the unjust taking away of the lives of our little neighbours, children whose only fault is that they aren’t born yet.

The House of Commons has also tonight failed to take the chance to save the lives of 3000 babies a year, by failing to reduce the time limit for abortion from 24 weeks to 20 weeks. Not that there’s any difference in principle between ending someone’s life at one point in time rather than at another slightly later one, but their disregard for human life at one of its most vulnerable stages of development is grossly culpable. Dan 9:4-10.

NB, of course I shouldn’t be writing this. I should be editing Chapter 1 or else trying to sleep off the effects of the truly disgusting cup of coffee I got from the library this afternoon. This is just gut reaction and I must not find time to say anything else about it! Not for the next couple of weeks anyway.