§ Mr. Conal Gregory (York)I have great pleasure in presenting on behalf of the constituents of York a petition signed by no fewer than 1,243 people since December. I pay tribute to Mrs. Angela Brefitt and her colleagues.
The petitioners pray that the House
will take immediate steps to enact legislation which forbids any procedure that involves purchase or sale of human embryos, the discarding or freezing of human embryos, their use as sources of transplant tissue or as subjects for research or experiment, unless this is done solely for the benefit of the embryo concerned; and forbids all forms of trans-species fertilisation.I welcome the petition. I, too, believe that we need legislation that will forbid the purchase or sale of human embryos and their use for experiments. Cloning and the creation of hybrids are reminiscent of the Hitler era and have no place in a civilised world. I am not surprised that the strongest law to date is that passed in West Germany, where people have terrible memories of experiments carried out on human beings.
§ To lie upon the Table.