Christians pray outside Parliament for HFE Bill

Christians from across the UK joined in a prayer rally outside the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday to coincide with MPs debating the final states of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Bill.

Prayers will focus on the contentious issues contained in the new Bill, including so- called 'designer babies', animal human hybrid embryos, and proposals to further liberalise the abortion laws.

The event has been organised by Christian Concern For Our Nation.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, Barrister and founder of CCFON, who has been working to promote positive amendments to the Bill said: "We will be praying that God will have mercy on this nation and allow amendments limiting the loss of human life to be passed.

"We will also pray that abortion law will not be liberalised and that the Abortion Act will not be extended to Northern Ireland, and that the tide will turn and the worst aspects of this Bill brought down."

The Christian Medical Fellowship has said that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which has its report and third reading stage in the House of Commons today, introduces measures which are unproven, unnecessary and unethical.

Peter Saunders, General Secretary of Christian Medical Fellowship, also expressed his opposition to aspects of the Bill.

"The original Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 paved the way for IVF and other technologies for artificial reproduction, but also opened the floodgates to destructive embryo research," he said.

"Over two million human embryos have been destroyed since. This new Bill takes us several huge steps further down the slippery slope in allowing practices that we believe are unproven, unnecessary and unethical - including animal-human hybrids, saviour siblings and the use of tissue from children, mentally incapacitated people and even people who have died, for embryo research without explicit consent."

CCFON believes members of the public "have real fears about this legislation" and that Parliament is "largely out of step with public opinion".

The group anticipates that the Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman, will table a motion limiting the amount of time allotted to the debate on the Bill so that no votes will be cast about the issue of abortion at all. This would mean that the abortion law would not be further liberalised.