Calls grow for free vote on embryo issue

PRESSURE was growing on Prime Minister Gordon Brown today to allow MPs a free vote on embryo research, after comments by Cardinal Keith O'Brien.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has urged Catholic ministers serving in the Cabinet to quit the Government rather than support the proposals in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

Cardinal O'Brien said there was an "obligation" on all Catholic MPs to consider the guidance of the Church's leaders when they came to vote on the issue.

While ultimately it was a matter of individual conscience, he hoped Catholic ministers would be prepared to resign rather than accept government orders to back the legislation.

His intervention came amid reports that Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy is preparing to quit the Cabinet rather than back the Bill, which would allow scientists to create hybrid human-animal embryos in the hope of curing life-threatening illnesses.