Where are the human rights for embryos?

WHILE most people will be shocked by the Irish Government’s commitment to use taxpayers’ money to fund experimentation on human embryos, what should be most shocking is the fact such activities are actually being considered at all.

Human experimentation is, in fact, prohibited by several international documents such as the Nuremburg Code and the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki.

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights also rejects the use of human beings in experimental research without their informed consent and permit research on incompetent subjects only if there is a legal surrogate, minimal risk, and therapeutic benefit for the human subject.

This is clearly not the case with experimentation on human embryos who are killed during the experimentation.

In an era when human rights are much talked about, it is unfortunate that the European Union and Ireland would seek to ignore such basic human rights documents.

Margaret Collier,

58 Meadow Grove,

Blackrock,

Cork.