There is a draft bill which is today circulating in the British House
of Commons which has the potential to destroy the most important
aspect of planet earth - human life itself.  This bill, entitled the
Human Tissue and Embryos draft bill authorizes British scientists to
genetically modify live human embryos with the DNA of other
organisms.  All persons concerned in any way with human life must be
outraged at such a blatant disregard for humanity and indeed for life
itself.

By definition, an embryo is an egg which is fertilized.  Fertilization
of a human egg endows the embryo with all of its potential genetic
attributes; each and every aspect of the fully developed human being
is contained within this fertilized egg.  It is at the point of
fertilization that human life must begin.  This rule applies to all
mammalian life - not only humans.  Can one imagine a geneticist
proclaiming that the fertilized fish embryo in his laboratory is in
fact a giraffe?  Of course this would be called silly and foolish -
giraffes do not emanate from fish embryos.  Neither do anything but
human beings emanate from human embryos.  To experiment with live
human embryos in such a fashion is to disregard the tenet that human
life is special and deserves the utmost care and respect.

One would think that the British of all peoples, would understand this
fact.  Many of the world's great scientific and social discoveries
emanated from Great Britain.  Britain is the land of William
Wilberforce who ended slavery in the United Kingdom and whose
influence brought abolition to the United States as well.  Sir Isaac
Newton, who discovered the very foundational laws of our physical
world was British and held the utmost respect for human life and Sir
William Blackstone, who held that human life was sacred, shaped the
common law which still governs both Britain and the United States
hundreds of years after his death.

Proponents of this bill rightly claim that the bill itself contains
prohibitions for the implantation of modified embryos into human
females.  However, any thoughtful person can see that this is a vain
and transparent attempt to appease those concerned with human dignity
and life in the hope that so-called "successful" experiments will
enable scientists to persuade the British government and people to
disregard these clauses at some later date.

This sort of dangerous experimentation is simply not necessary.
Whatever gene expressions the British are allegedly seeking can be
brought about in other ways which do not degrade human life and lower
the worth of humankind to the level of a laboratory experiment.

Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of propaganda described the medical
experiments of the Nazis in the following statement,

"Out starting point is not the individual, and we do not subscribe to
the view that one should feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty,
or clothe the naked...our objectives are entirely different: we must
have a healthy people in order to prevail in the world."

Without a defined reverence for life, this is where mankind must end:
the selfish pursuit of subjective perfection regardless of the
temporal or eternal consequences.  Reverence for life can and MUST be
the beginning point for all human research, whether clinical,
theoretical or genetic.

Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the physician-missionary who spent his life
serving the people of Africa stated,
"Only by means of reverence for life can we establish a spiritual and
humane relationship with both people and all living creatures within
our reach. Only in this fashion can we avoid harming others, and,
within the limits of our capacity, go to their aid whenever they need
us."

Contrast Dr. Schweitzer's thoughts with those of the Cambodian despot,
Pol Pot who murdered millions of his own people in the name of
"progress": "Since he is of no use anymore, there is no gain if he
lives and no loss if he dies."  If live, human embryos are to be
experimented upon and then destroyed as is claimed, then the
researchers in Britain who desire to follow this line of
experimentation have taken up Pol Pot's cause and his degradation of
human life.

Humanity is already seeing the result of this sort of thinking in the
euthanasia and infanticide movements in Europe and in the abortion
industry of America.  The degradation of human life is also
manifesting itself in the form of sexual enslavement of thousands of
Russian, Chinese, and Korean girls who are being sold to western
"husbands" who treat them as property.  Can we not see the ultimate
end of this sort of thinking leads to the destruction of all human
life?

The dignity of human life is the gravus eventum of our day.
Immigration is not, terrorism is not, neither is economic prosperity,
for if we cannot as a race understand the dignity of human life, then
no other issue will be of any consequence.  Thoughtful persons of
every society - not scientists alone, must ensure the proper place for
human scientific research.

C. S. Lewis summed up this idea perfectly, when he wrote,
"Who can endure a doctrine which would allow only dentists to say
whether our teeth were aching, only cobblers to say whether our shoes
hurt us, and only governments to tell us whether we were being well
governed?"

Those who value humanity, peace, love and dignity must rise up and
stop this madness before it metastasizes into an uncontrollable
disease which dooms our entire race.  I urge you to avail yourselves
of every peaceful avenue to forbid the practice of live human
embryonic experimentation.