At the moment, the EU is promoting a constitution, giving it a new and wider range of powers, of which many are wary. At each Irish referendum in the past where the subject came up, people were assured that the EU had no competence or interest in abortion and no wish to have any such competence. What do such assurances mean if in a similar and not unrelated area such as embryonic stem cell research, the EU is willing to coerce its members into accepting and funding an equally divisive proposition?