Protect the embryo

At a Glance

What's this about?

Right now, we're rolling out a huge campaign to protect the human embryo. Why? Because Minister for Health, Mary Harney, said that she intends to bring forward proposals to government this year with a view to drafting legislation to govern the area of Assisted Human Reproduction and Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

We need to ensure that this legislation protects life from the moment of conception - and outlaws any form of embryo research or embryo destruction. Embryo research advocates such as the Irish Stem Cell Foundation continue to push Minister Harney to allow lethal research on human life. The Minister has said she will reference the recommendations of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction in drafting legislation - but those recommendations would allow for embryo research and cloning. A new report from the Life Institute reveals that the Commission was hand-picked for that purpose.

Millions of euro have been invested by big pharma in embryonic stem cell research - but we need to make sure that Ireland's pro-life ethos does not fall.

We are determined to collect 100,000 signatures by the end of our Summer of Life campaign to send to Minister Harney to emphasize that the Irish people want all human life protected from conception to natural death, which includes the embryo.

The petitions that will be signed and sent to Minister Harney states:

We, the undersigned, call on the Irish government to protect the right-to-life of the human embryo from conception, and demand a ban on any form of embryo research, and on the deliberate destruction of the human embryo.

Download a petition form here and get your friends and family to sign it.

Want to know more about Stem Cell Research

Here's 3 easy facts

(and a whole lot more if you like)

1. Stem cell research is hugely important - and it has the potential to cure patients with a whole range of diseases. But that's adult stem cell research, which uses stem cells obtained without killing anyone, usually from the patient's own body. We're strongly in favour of adult stem cell research.

2. Adult stem cell therapies, in published trials, have benefited patients with up to 73 medical conditions - including cancer, spinal injuries and Parkinson's disease. A recent study noted that in 2006 (most recent data they had available) over 50,000 patients around the globe received adult stem cell transplants. Embryonic stem cell research, on the other hand, destroys human life and hasn't helped even one patient.

3. In fact, having wasted billions on research which destroys embryos, scientists, doctors and investors are now abandoning embryonic stem cell research and switching to the research that's producing results - adult stem cell research. The ultimate test for any form of research is, of course, the number of registered approved clinical trials currently taking place worldwide. This information is now easily available on www.clinicaltrials.gov which currently records more than 90,000 trials in 174 countries. That website reveals that as at 1 October 2010 there were 2135 adult stem cell research transplant trials versus a paltry 4 embryonic stem cell transplant trials.

View these Youtube videos of experts Dr. David Prentice and Wesley Smith on the science and ethics of stem cell research and human cloning.

Dr. David A. Prentice - Stem Cell Expert

Dr. David Prentice gave a superb talk in Dublin recently on the science and ethics of stem cell research and human cloning. This 35 minute talk broken into 3 sections simply explains stem cell research and problems associated with using embyros in research.

Wesley Smith - Stem Cell Ethicist

Wesley Smith spoke in Dublin, 2009, on the ethics of stem cell research and the background to the new ideologies concerning personhood and human dignity. This 25 minute talk broken into 2 sections explores the new philosophies.