Seanad debates

Thursday, 27 November 2003

Address by Ms Nuala Ahern, MEP.

 

I have sat and listened to members of the US Congress on this matter, and run the gamut between those who believe it should be publicly funded, which in the US it is not, and those who believe that embryos should be adopted and grown into children, the believers in "creationist" science. It is a very wide spectrum of understanding. All our contributions on this should be valued. We are getting into a very strange new world in this case and we need to be quite careful in what we do. I do not think this is the moment to agree to the public funding of this in Europe. It is currently the case that this research is publicly funded by member states, for example the UK. It is not a question of stopping this research although we are ahead of ourselves. It is a complex situation on which I hope I have made my position clear, in as much as we can be clear on these difficult issues. I have tried to listen to all sides in this debate and have been prepared to sit and make legislation on it in discussing the framework programmes.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.