The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill's Comprehensive Threat to Innocent Human Life.

As I write, the British House of Commons is due on May 12 to debate the British government's "Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill." The bill represents one of the most comprehensive legislative threats to innocent, early human life debated to date.

In brief, the bill, if unamended, will enshrine and extend the destructive and unethical use of human embryos, which includes human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, "saviour siblings," and human-animal hybrids.

Anyone vaguely familiar with British politics will be unsurprised by this new bill. Britain is usually one of the countries most willing to jump first into bioethical black holes as soon as they appear. For pro-lifers, the temptation to groan, shrug one's shoulders, and lapse into depression-induced cynicism is always present.

We should, however, take a leaf out of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's response to his staff when faced with Hitler's surprise December 1944 offensive: "The present situation is to be regarded as one of opportunity for us and not of disaster. There will be only cheerful faces at this table."

The opportunity in the present situation is the chance to consolidate and extend a truly pro-life resistance, both within and without parliament. Parliamentarians have received an unprecedented number of communications from the public opposing the bill's abuses. Several Church leaders have spoken out with unprecedented clarity and vigour in defence of embryonic children.

"Fellow travellers," that is, people with pro-life sympathies though not yet pro-life principles, have responded the bill's radical ...