We are about to have a public government endorsement of experiments of Frankenstein proportion - Cardinal Keith O'Brien
Taken from BBC Online and I just heard someone on the radio saying 'We are not making monsters'
Cardinal O'Brien has written to Gordon Brown with his concerns. The leader of the Catholic church in Scotland has urged Gordon Brown to rethink "monstrous" plans to allow hybrid human-animal embryos. Cardinal Keith O'Brien will use his Easter Sunday sermon to launch a scathing attack on over the government's controversial proposals.
He will also call on the prime minister to allow Labour MPs a free vote on the issue at Westminster. Mr Brown has said the bill would improve research into many illnesses.
Supporters of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill believe hybrid embryos could lead to cures for diseases including multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Mr Brown said: "This is an important Bill that improves the facilities for research and is vital for dealing with life-threatening diseases."
But in his sermon, which was released on Friday, Cardinal O'Brien claims that the Bill would lead to the endorsement of experiments of "Frankenstein proportion". He will say: "This Bill represents a monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life. "In some European countries one could be jailed for doing what we intend to make legal.
"I can say that the government has no mandate for these changes: they were not in any election manifesto, nor do they enjoy widespread public support."
The Cardinal will describe the practice as "grotesque" and "hideous". He will add: "One might say that in our country we are about to have a public government endorsement of experiments of Frankenstein proportion - without many people really being aware of what is going on."
Cardinal O'Brien goes on to call for the establishment of a "single permanent national bioethics commission". He has written to Mr Brown to tell him that this would be the only way in which the issue can be "adequately discussed". A proposed amendment to the bill which would have prohibited the creation of inter-species embryos, known as human admixed embryos, was defeated by 268 votes to 96 in the House of Lords in January.
Labour peers were instructed to follow the party whip by voting against the proposed amendment. Conservative leader David Cameron has called on Mr Brown to allow Labour MPs to have a free vote on the bill when it returns to the House of Commons later in the year. Free votes allow MPs to vote according to their own beliefs rather than following the party whip. Mr Brown has said a decision on whether a free vote will be held would be taken "in due course".
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Monsters of the Deep
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.
A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.
It's "exciting when you come across a new species," said Chris Jones, a fisheries scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "All the fish people go nuts about that — but you have to take it with a grain of salt."
The finds must still be reviewed by experts to determine if they are in fact new, said Stu Hanchet, a fisheries scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.
But beyond the discovery of new species, scientists said the survey, the most comprehensive to date in the Ross Sea, turned up other surprises.
Hanchet singled out the discovery of "fields" of sea lilies that stretched for hundreds of yards across the ocean floor.
"Some of these big meadows of sea lilies I don't think anybody has seen before," Hanchet said.
Previously only small-scale scientific samplings have been staged in the Ross Sea.
The survey was part of the International Polar Year program involving 23 countries in 11 voyages to survey marine life and habitats around Antarctica. The program hopes to set benchmarks for determining the effects of global warming on Antarctica, researchers said.
Large sea spiders, jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles, huge sea snails and starfish the size of big food platters were found during a 50-day voyage, marine scientist Don Robertson said.
Cold temperatures, a small number of predators, high levels of oxygen in the sea water and even longevity could explain the size of some specimens, said Robertson, a scientist with NIWA.
Robertson added that of the 30,000 specimens collected, hundreds might turn out to be new species.
Stefano Schiaparelli, a mollusk specialist at Italy's National Antarctic Museum in Genoa, said he thought the find would yield at least eight new mollusks.
"This is a new brick in the wall of Antarctic knowledge," Schiaparelli said.
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