Madam, - The recommendation by the Irish Council for Bioethics that legislation should be passed to regulate the conduct of embryonic stem cell research in Ireland deserves widespread support. Unfortunately, Senator John Hanafin chooses to criticise this recommendation on ideological grounds (Opinion & Analysis, April 24th).
In a week when the High Court has had to intervene to allow life-saving blood transfusions for anaemic twins whose parents opposed it on religious grounds, we might reflect on the phenomenon of religious opposition to potentially life-saving treatments. When medical research holds out hope for those suffering from medical conditions such as Parkinson's disease, its development would clearly be in the public good.
To oppose such research on religious or ideological grounds is not fair on patients or their families. By far the more humane approach is to recommend, as the Bioethics Council has done, that this research be conducted in a regulated manner, within a rational legal framework.
- Yours, etc,
IVANA BACIK, Seanad Éireann, Dublin 2.