That many of these arguments were never even heard by the public is not surprising. The media grossly distorted the debate and Sir Bernard Braine had to write to the BBC complaining about news items prepared by supposedly objective reporters who, in reality, held and promoted their own highly subjective views. How often was a disabled person, holding pro-life views, asked to appear in reports to balance the views of those who said disability could be 'cured' by experiments? How often were proprietors of private clinics involved in making money, or a reputation, balanced by pro-life medics? How often were strident voices balanced by those of women who had been the victims of abortion? And does it not strike you as odd that virtually every known medical procedure has been shown on television, with the notable exception of abortion?
What the Future Holds
While the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill was before the House of Commons for consideration in April 1989 there were two graphic illustrations of where our anti-life mentality has taken us. They point bleakly to the future. In Liverpool, a court was considering the case of a drunken driver who had mowed down an eight-month pregnant mother on a pedestrian crossing. The baby died. The judge instructed the jury that the unborn child did not count in law. The driver was given a three-month prison sentence and a ÂŁ1 fine. Neither the Lord Chancellor nor Home Office Ministers, to whom representations were made, were prepared to hold an inquiry into this decision or to criticise the verdict. Then there was the case of the King's College baby, one of a pair of twins. He had a chromosomal defect that would have left him impotent; in no way life threatening. Using the selective reduction procedure, described above, the baby was killed at twenty-seven weeks' gestation. A letter in The Lancet suggested that it might be better if these procedures were renamed 'pregnancy enhancement' as selective reduction - although an accurate medical description of precisely what takes place - had unfortunate connotations. Cardinal Basil Hume, in a letter to the Duke of Norfolk in February 1989, eloquently described where our lack of respect for life is leading:
Gene therapy and positive genetic engineering are not the stuff of science fiction but realities of the near future. It is ironic that when Dr Edwards began his work on IVF he found it difficult to obtain serious consideration for his proposals outside a