§ Mr. Simon Hughes (Southwark, North and Bermondsey)It is obviously a week for petitions on matters ethical and related. In that context, I present a petition of 26,000-plus people—members and supporters of the Society of Doctors and Lawyers for Responsible Medicine—on the subject of transgenic transplant experiments. The petition
Declares that we are gravely concerned at the very real risk of creating new and catastrophic human epidemics through the proposed transplanting of animal organs (genetically engineered or otherwise) into humans, thereby giving rise to the possibility of inevitably unknown viruses crossing the species barrier, a single instance of which could unleash an irreversible chain reaction of unimaginable proportions, and we are particularly concerned that action is urgently needed since transplants are planned to commence by the autumn of this year.The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons request the Secretary of State for Health to take action to bring to an end these health and life threatening experiments.And the Petitioners remain, etc.To lie upon the Table.