A submission from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to the Lockhart Review of the Prohibition of Human Cloning Act 2002 and the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002

Below is a summary of the ACBC submission. The full submission can be accessed by clicking on the PDF file to the right of the screen.

The subject matter of the Review is of great importance to the integrity of our nation and our community as well as to science.

The delay in establishing the Review has halved the time that the Review has to complete its important task.

The Review has advised that it will not consider threshold issues such as the rationale for the legislation.  To ignore such important threshold issues threatens the credibility of the Review.

Respect for human dignity, especially of the most vulnerable, is of paramount importance to our integrity as a nation and is a fundamental community standard. If some people wish to ignore the human dignity of human embryos, they must prove that human embryos do not have such dignity.  It is not merely a matter of “belief”.  The Review has chosen to ignore these threshold issues.

The Review proposes to assess “community standards” but does not advise the criteria against which such standards will be assessed.

Respect for human dignity is a fundamental community standard.  Such a standard would neither allow cloning of a human nor permit destructive research on human embryos and would definitely not permit further research than currently permitted by law.

Many of the claimed scientific advances resulting from the use of embryonic stem cells are still unproven and most such advances are achievable via other means without the destruction of human embryos undertaken by some researchers.

The issues being considered by the Review are integral to the fundamental values of our nation and our community standards. These issues warrant substantial discussion and consideration at all levels of our society.

+Archbishop Francis P Carroll
Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn
President, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference