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Cóir Date: 15.12.2009 Cóir has called on the government to respect the wishes of the people and to protect human life from the moment of conception. The organization made its call today after the Supreme Court upheld a High Court decision which will allow three frozen embryos to be destroyed against the mother’s wishes.
The five judge court found that consent was required to proceed with the implantation. They also agreed with the High Court’s ruling that the embryos are not protected under Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution, and therefore not entitled to Constitutional protection. They found that the "unborn" referred to a child within the womb, and not pre-implanted embryos.
Cóir said that in doing so the Supreme Court has upheld an erroneous decision by Justice McGovern in the High Court, in which the judge decreed that it was not the intention of the electorate in 1983 to protect the human embryo outside the womb. “It is not possible for a judge, or anybody else, to presume that they know the intentions of the electorate; the 1996 Hanafin case ruled that no one could claim that they knew the minds of the voters” said Richard Greene of Cóir. “When the people voted in 1983, there was no mention of restricting the right to life at any stages, although IVF and test-tube babies had been around for many years before that.”
Mr Greene said that the people had spoken in two referendums on this issue, and also when asked by Government bodies. “The Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction and the Irish Council for Bio-ethics asked for submissions from the public on the treatment of early human life, and the vast majority submissions received supported protecting human life from conception, and said that any form of lethal experiments on embryonic life should be banned. But they ignored the public, and instead recommended legislation that would have made us one of the most liberal countries in the world in regulating this area.”
“This Government needs to now act to support the wishes of the people and restore full protection to the human embryo from the moment of conception. Any attempts to use this latest judgment to introduce embryo research and experimentation would be totally unacceptable and will be strongly opposed.”
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For more information contact Richard Greene on 087 9724525
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