Stem-Cell Research Endangered in Britain

Ah, the glories of confederation: stem-cell research, currently legal in Britain, may end up being banned because of European Parliament objections.

Comments

[D. Reed]

I would hope that Great Britian would once again follow its own dictates and continue to permit stem cell research. One would think that the Iraqi situation would form a wonderful lesson plan for ignoring the wishes (dictates?) of the European Parliament.
And if they ever need a friend, they need only look west. Ever and always.

[Anonymous]

I believe the religious right was mentioned in the article. In europe too ?

[Gary Gunnels]

Well, Sweden has Europe's most robust stem-cell research. Anyway, the article makes it clear that these European Parliament members have to vote on this again, and that the member states have to agree on this as well, so its not quite as dire as the write-up makes it sound.

It would be interesting to see what the breakdown of the votes were as well. I know Germany and Austria have banned this kind of research, France has banned it in the past (I think they lifted or are going to lift it), Belgium leaves it totally unregulated, and well the UK regulates it. I can almost guarantee that a lot of these votes came from places like Spain and Italy, where the the RCC's hostility toward stem cell research is mirrored.

[Gary Gunnels]

Anonymous Poster,

What makes you think that there aren't Christian Fundamnetalists in Europe? You should have seen the firestorm when France enacted civil unions (for gay or straight) in 1999.

[david f]

hey gary!

i would venture to say that the types of fundies in europe are nothing like the ones here. consider, for example, the protests over abortion. there's nothing like the fervor we have over there. or just look at the reactions when ashcroft opens his mouth. so, there are "christian" parties, but nothing close to the power here.

de telegraaf, der standard, die presse, s?ddeutsche, faz, and others have compared the christian right in the us with the pre anschluss party of Schnussnigg and Dollfuss.

catholic reactions (fr, i, esp, etc) are also a bit different from the reactions here, too. think kenneth starr -- his report was lampooned all across europe, even in the christian conservative continental papers...

with that in mind, that's an excellent call about sweden. bavaria is fighting the stem cell ban, too. but they can't override federal law. however, the EU can bully sweden into doing what it wants (kinda like how neocons are treating europe (france) now), so that can change...

(oh, if you wanna get ticked, check out this website, merdeinfrance.blogspot.com -- please view with caution. it gets even this euroskeptic libertarian nervous)...

au re-lire/ecrire,
drf