Last minute action by Sydney Anglicans like Nigel Fortescue has failed to stop the Australian parliament late last night from overturning its ban on cloning human embryos for scientific research.
Although Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition leader Kevin Rudd both backed continuing the ban, the final vote was an anti-climax, reports AAP, with MPs electing not to call a division.
Yesterday the office of Archbishop Peter Jensen sent a pastoral letter to all Sydney Anglican clergy encouraging them "to write or telephone your local member' expressing opposition to the Bill.
Mr Fortsecue from Naremburn-Cammeray Anglican Church was on the phone to the office of his local MP, Joe Hockey.
"This bill allows a radical departure from current practices and an unethical expansion of medical research. It allows medical researchers to embark on a new course that can be shown to be unethical from both a Christian and un-Christian world view," Mr Fortescue says.
Concerns about democracy
Mr Fortescue believes the way debate was conducted points to some concerns about the health of democracy in this country.
"The content of the bill is complicated and technical and this has allowed the proponents to have many of its facets remain unknown to the general public," he says.
One issue that concerns Mr Fortescue is that an industry will develop around the research and this will lead to a human egg shortage.
Scientists who want to produce cloned embryos have already suggested that eggs could be removed from women after their death or from aborted female fetuses.
"This is concerning for the state of democracy," says Mr Fortescue. "While we elect our leaders to make decisions on our behalf… in the situation of a conscience vote, it would seem appropriate to allow the general public to understand the entire bill so they can make representation to their local members."
Way forward
Mr Fortescue says lobbying by Sydney Anglicans on issues like human cloning can be more effective if we all took more time to actually build a relationship with our local MPs.
The ministry staff at Naremburn-Cammeray aim to have annual function each year for Joe and their State representative Gladys Berejiklian
"It is a positive relationship," Nigel says, who recently met with Ms Berejiklian to discuss the issue of mental health services for men. "We try to support our MPs in whatever way we can, including praying for them."
The benefit is that the politicians want to know what the church members, who they represent, are thinking.
"They know we are genuine and not single issue people," says Nigel. "They are willing to listen to us and we are willing to listen to and not judge them."
"If they are willing to listen, they may just be willing to change their mind as you talk to them."
