Jim Dobbin, who died last Sunday ­during a visit to Poland as part of his work for the Council of Europe, was a popular, respected and effective MP who was renowned for his commitment to the pro-life cause. A devout Catholic, he joined the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-life Group when he was first elected to Parliament and subsequently became its chairman and latterly its co-chairman. He often said that promoting the pro-life cause was the primary reason he wanted to be an MP.He led campaigns to restrict abortion on the grounds of gender and disability and spoke out against the introduction of mitochondrial transfer, the process of creating embryos using genetic material from three people. He also opposed the creation of ­animal-human hybrid embryos and any experimentation on the hu