Embryos bill 'conscience vote' urged

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In a letter to a newspaper, more than 100 professors from education institutions all over the country said the Government and opposition parties should not force MPs to follow a party line in upcoming Commons votes on the legislation.

The Bill, which includes measures to allow mixing of human and animal embryos to create hybrids and allowing lesbian couples to register as joint legal parents of a child born through fertility treatment, has completed its third reading in the House of Lords and will soon be entering the Commons.

The 108 scientists, lawyers, philosophers and theologians who signed the letter said that although they did not hold "a single common view" on the content of the Bill, they all believed that "political parties should not erode the principle of a 'conscience vote' on controversial bioethical legislation".

Votes on amendments to the Bill should not be whipped, they said.

The Bill seeks to bring the regulatory framework for fertility treatment and embryo research up to date with advances in science.

It is likely to start a debate on abortion laws, with some anti-abortion campaigners and MPs pressing for a reduction in the upper time limit for terminations.

MPs are expected to try to reduce the current 24-week limit - possibly to 20 weeks - by tabling an amendment to the Bill, and Conservative leader David Cameron said last week he would back a reduction.