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Cardinal attacked over 'Nazi' embryo Bill outburst

There was angry reaction yesterday to comparisons made by the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland between the Government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, and medical experiements carried out by the Nazis during the Second World War.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien described the implications of the legislation as “grotesque” and akin to “behaviour last seen under the Nazis”. In an open letter, he said he was appalled that Gordon Brown was promoting the Bill.

Lord Winston, the medical academic, said yesterday that the Cardinal's comments were unacceptable. He added that extreme remarks polarised opinion and did not do the Catholic Church justice.

The Labour peer told BBC Scotland: “It might be worth reminding the Cardinal that, actually, the Catholic Church knew about the Nazi experimentation, even before the war, not just after it, and did very little to prevent it from happening.”

He added: “Christian people might be offended as well, because of the suffering of some Christian people as well as the terrible suffering by the Jewish people.”

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, during a debate at Glasgow University last night, said: “I have two things to say. One is that comparisons with Nazi Germany are always a tempting conversation stopper and must be used sparingly.

“I am concerned by that aspect of genetics which encourages us to think of human tissue or organs in a more functional way. It's a nebulous thing but there is a dangerous drift of thinking not about what we are as humans but what use we are. That is not to knock down stem cell research, but if I have a moral worry that would be it,” he added.

Full story at The Times.