Designer baby challenge success

Westminster, 20 December 2002--Josephine Quintavalle of Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE) was congratulated on her high court victory over the embryology authority today by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

Paul Tully of SPUC said: "Josephine Quintavalle, on behalf of CORE, has taken a most courageous stand on this critically important issue, and is to be congratulated on the success of her case.

"SPUC has great sympathy for the Hashmis and other families carrying potentially harmful genetic conditions. The development of ethical means of treating these conditions, such as the use of combination immuno-suppressant regimes to facilitate tissue transplants, must be prioritised, instead of diverting resources into scientifically interesting, but legally and morally unacceptable techniques.

"At the same time, we regard it as deplorable to use the suffering of families and children as a means of emotional blackmail to demand that human embryos in the test-tube can be chopped up, tested and discarded as if they were inert samples from an industrial chemical process."