LETTERS
Embryo research
Sir: A jester making a fool of himself may occasionally give some people slight amusement. Last week, some readers of The Spectator will have had enjoyment at the spectacle of James Le Fanu waving the pig's bladder of inflated journalism, before falling totally flat on his face. In his piece, purporting to 'investigate what really goes on in embryo research,' he attempted to persuade readers that I and my colleagues make 'spurious claims' that such research will bring great benefits to thousands of infertile patients and families carrying gegietic diseases.
I shall not defend the value of embryo research here. I do not need to, because last week, shortly before The Spectator published Le Fanu's drollery, Nature, the world's undisputedly leading scientific journal, reported a major advance which will lead to the prevention of genetic disease in many families. The same report, incidentally, also shows how this discovery will improve success rates following in vitro fertilisation and hence help infertility. This breakthrough was entirely the result of research on human embryos.
This is relevant to Le Fanu's article, because it was an attempt to debunk us by suggesting that we had never published anything on embryo research worthwhile in Nature. He claimed that scientists had never answered a long-forgotten challenge by John Maddox to prove the value of embryo research.
A bigger question is posed by why Le Fanu never bothered to contact the sources he was so ready to criticise. This seeming lack of honest appraisal is a consistent theme in much of what has been written by so many of the 'pro-life' advocates. Their readiness to misquote scientific evidence to suit their purposes is wicked, but the question remains, why? They are all seemingly honourable people with high moral principles. I believe it is because they consider that destruction of the embryo results in destruction of human babies. They believe, no doubt with great sincerity, that the embryo is an unborn child. This leads them to feel that such a great sin should be stopped with whatever means. If this requires distorting scientific fact, or diminishing the possible benefits that embryo research will bring to many ordinary people, then they seem to think that their ends are justified.
Robert Winston
Hammersmith Hospital, London W12
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