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the Week' |
In spite of all the bad weather we had a very good
attendance at the Holy Week and Easter Services at Church.
We decided this year not to have an Easter Day evening
Service but encouraged members of the Church to attend the
Fakenham Methodist Church ‘Songs of Praise’.
During Easter eve my mind was not only on the successful
services, but the people I had visited in Holy Week with
communion. These visits took place whilst the press was
printing opposition by Church of England and Roman Catholic
Bishops to the controversial Government’s Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. My visits included one to
a lady with the onset of Motor Neurone disease and another
gentleman with Alzheimers. Both were being cared for in
their own homes by loving families and supporting nursing
teams, but I came away feel so saddened by these horrendous
diseases.
According to the Church Times the words used by Jonathan
Gledhill, Bishop of Lichfield, a previous colleague, and Dr
Tom Wright Bishop of Durham were interesting. The words -
‘Immoral’. ‘Tyrannical’ ‘Species bending’ were used in
sermons, and Cardinal Keith O’Brien RC Archbishop of St
Andrews and Edinburgh spoke about ‘a Frankenstein monster’
Personally knowing very little about the proposal other than
that the hybrid embryos will only be alive for days, but in
that time a cure for some the world’s worst diseases might
be found, is worth trying. I have seen numerous people with
motor neurone disease. I could not think of a worst way to
die or to suffer. If there is a glimmer of hope out there
that a cure might be found for these diseases for God’s sake
let’s try. If my wife or children were suffering I would try
anything.
Britain is a leading nation for stem-cell research and has
produced so many leading scientists that surely there must
be a way forward.
In previous centuries the Church was insisting the world was
flat, burnt heretics, and locked books away in the Vatican
library because there might change or enlighten people’s
lives. Today there must be safeguards, but surely research
is essential to the future of mankind.
Adrian Bell. |
