Displaying items by tag: laws

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) regulates UK fertility treatment and embryology research. They want laws regulating fertility treatment and research to have less strict inspections and be inspected less regularly. Given the ethical controversies surrounding fertility treatment and embryo experimentation, Christian Concern believes regular inspections should continue and not simply be based on an opinion about current risks. HFEA also wants to store embryos in a research bank so that they can be allocated to research projects when needed. But Christian Concern believes life is sacred from conception and should not be treated as a disposable commodity. The proposed clause opens a way to create embryos for eventual destruction without valuing human life. These are not pieces of biological matter, they are human beings made in the image of God. As Christians, we are called to care for the most vulnerable, those overlooked or manipulated by others.

This year’s London Tech Week focused on the need for artificial intelligence (AI) to be trustworthy and responsive to the needs of society. UK Research and Innovation has funded £50 million to create secure AI to help solve major challenges by bringing experts from different fields together. Professor Gregory O’Hare said, ‘AI offers profound opportunities, but could also be used for sinister means with financial or political implications, like boundary incursions and even wars. Will it always be used for good purpose, or is there a significant chance it will be used for Machiavellian purposes? AI is developing at a faster pace than laws can be drafted in response.’ The Irish Congress of Trade Unions said they should be involved at an early stage when addressing AI concerns as the EU AI Act is not suitable and is more than disappointing from workers’ point of view. It offers some comfort but ‘doesn’t go far enough’.

The Senate in Florida has passed a bill to ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The ‘Heartbeat Protection Act’ would prohibit physicians from knowingly performing or inducing a pregnancy termination after the gestational age of the foetus is over six weeks, as opposed to 15 weeks at present. Last year the state’s governor signed a law which bans abortion after 15 weeks, with no exception for rape or incest. It is being challenged in Florida’s supreme court. A decision is not expected until May. The Heartbeat Protection Act provides ‘an exception if the woman obtaining the abortion is a victim of rape, incest or human trafficking, subject to certain conditions’. Two Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against the legislation. The bill is expected to have the legislation signed, and Republicans are expected to pass their own version of the bill in the coming days.

On 15 February the Republican-led Senate in Arizona voted in favour of a bill to ban abortion after fifteen weeks of pregnancy. Senator Nancy Barto, who sponsored the bill, said, ‘The state has an obligation to protect life, and that is what this bill is about. A 15-week-old baby in the womb has a fully formed nose, lips, eyelids. They suck their thumbs. They feel pain. That’s what this bill is about.’ Democrats argue that any abortion ban would disproportionately affect low-income and minority women who are unable to travel to other states with no such restrictions. Doctors who violate the bill could face felony charges and lose their licences. At present, the bill moves to the GOP-controlled State House, which has previously ruled against abortion. If passed, it goes to governor Doug Ducey’s desk to be signed. In the past seven sessions, Ducey, who opposed abortion, has signed every abortion-related bill that has reached his desk.

On 8 February, the day dedicated to safer internet, the department for culture, media and sport and MP Chris Philp published the Online Safety Bill, which will force pornography websites to prevent underage access including by using age verification technologies. They believe that children will be better protected from online pornography under the new measures in the Government’s pioneering new internet safety laws. Pray that all sites that publish pornography will successfully put robust checks in place to ensure their users are over 18 and that no one slips through the safety net. If sites fail to act, Ofcom will be able to fine them up to 10% of their annual worldwide turnover or can even block them from being accessible in the UK. Bosses of these websites could also be held criminally liable if they fail to cooperate with Ofcom.

Tom Tugendhat will chair a foreign affairs select committee to look into the Government’s apparent inability to crack down on money-laundering. Russian oligarchs’ use of London to launder their fortunes will come under renewed scrutiny. The Foreign Office is often accused of leaving a gap between its tough anti-Russian rhetoric and failure to control either money-laundering or those in the UK who enable the corruption. Foreigh secretary Liz Truss says the UK has some of the toughest anti-corruption laws in the world, but even in her short period in office she has been repeatedly challenged to review whether the laws are working effectively or adequately policed. The inquiry will follow up a previous investigation which found gaps in government anti-corruption armoury, warning, ‘Turning a blind eye to London’s role in hiding the proceeds of Kremlin-connected corruption risks signalling that the UK is not serious about confronting the full spectrum of Putin’s offensive measures.’

An international group of scientists has ditched ethical guidelines so that they can grow babies for forty days, for the sole purpose of killing them for research. The International Society for Stem Cell Research issued new guidelines that lift restrictions on certain types of unethical research that manipulate, alter, or destroy human embryos. It wants to remove a 14-day rule for research on human embryos, established in 1979, which stated scientists may only experiment on human embryos up to 14 days after fertilisation. This rule has been the current policy in the United States and generally a scientific standard throughout the world. The new guidelines have removed all restraint, creating the potential for ‘baby in a bottle’ experiments. It also wants to use three-parent human embryos (human embryo with DNA from three individuals), which is currently prohibited, and to allow creating a cell from animal and human cells, characteristic, or tissues.

Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019 after Westminster acted during the absence of devolution. Delays in implementing Northern Ireland's abortion laws have been a ‘deeply troubling exercise in finger-pointing’, a court has heard. Stormont is under pressure to establish a permanent, central abortion service; it has not happened yet and is being challenged in a high court judicial review. The Human Rights Commission is taking the case against the NI Executive, the Department of Health, and the NI secretary Brandon Lewis. Currently health trusts only operate a ‘skeleton service’ for medical abortions up to ten weeks of pregnancy. Women seeking a termination beyond that gestation travel to England. Arlene Foster’s party, which opposes abortion, said that abortion proposals were not going to be passed by the executive or the incoming leader, Edwin Poots.

Ioannis Dekas, a father of four sons, became concerned after he found one of his boys had accessed pornography. He said this was a wake-up call for him and his wife, making them confront the potential danger to their son and the impact on them all as a family. Mr Dekas wants the government to put in place the age verification requirements set out in part three of the Digital Economy Act - a law that was passed in 2017 but not acted on. Mr Dekas is seeking a High Court hearing to consider whether the government should tighten youngsters' access to pornography. He wants the government to implement proof of age in order to gain access. New research suggests the majority of 16- and 17-year-olds in the UK have recently seen porn. The government is currently preparing a new Online Harms Bill, which is expected to be put before Parliament later this year.

A 23-year-old woman taking legal action against an NHS gender clinic says she should have been challenged more by medical staff over her decision to transition to a male as a 16-year-old teenager. At the hearing, lawyers will argue that children cannot give informed consent to treatment delaying puberty or helping them to transition. The clinic runs the UK's only gender-identity development service. Pray for the two claimants, Keira Bell and Mum A - the mother of a 15-year-old girl with autism who is awaiting treatment at the clinic. Pray for stricter control of the puberty blockers that pause the development of breasts, periods, facial hair and voice-breaking. They are meant to give children more time to weigh up their options before going through the physical changes of puberty. Their impact on brain development and psychological health is not fully known.