Madam, - Your issue of June 19th carried a front-page story on EU funding for human embryonic stem cell research, stating that Minister for Enterprise and Employment Mícheál Martin had "defied a call from the Catholic bishops" on the matter.
Destructive research on human embryos is not primarily a religious matter, it is a human rights issue independent of the view of any particular religion. Generating human embryonic stem cells involves destroying individual human lives at an early stage in their existence.
It would be unfair to criticise Mr Martin on a personal level, since he is merely articulating what has been Ireland's policy for several years past; nevertheless what he is quoted as saying needs to be challenged. The EU vote is to determine how pooled research funds are to be spent; it does not involve telling other countries how to run their affairs internally. If, as Mr Martin suggests, human embryonic stem cell research is not to take place in Ireland, it is presumably because we as a community think that it is unethical.
Killing individual humans is equally unacceptable, whether it happens in Ireland or in another country. We cannot dictate what happens in other countries, but we should at least withhold our assent and try to influence thinking by taking a principled stand on issues such as this, and we should not be afraid to take criticism from other countries, should that come. If we don't, it raises the question - is there any issue on which Ireland will not compromise for selfish motives and possible economic gain? If the answer is no, as I fear it may be, then this country, however rich it may have become economically, is surely a poor and shallow society.
While I believe passionately in the potential of modern biotechnology to improve human health and welfare, there must be ethical limits to the means by which we achieve this.
Furthermore, the hype around human embryonic stem cell research owes more to the traditions of magic and superstition than to science; there is no theoretical framework and no set of experimental tools to provide a pathway to curing human diseases using human embryonic cells.
I appeal to Mr Martin to think for himself rather than accepting the tired and derivative thinking which has driven policy over the past few years, and to record Ireland's vote as opposing this barbaric and unproductive area of research. - Yours, etc,
MARTIN CLYNES, Professor of Biotechnology, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9.