Milestone for ‘One Of Us’ petition

Pro-life campaigners have forced the European Union to reconsider its position on embryo research after collecting more than 1.5 million signatures across the Continent for a church-backed petition, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

“This is a great and remarkable milestone,” the One Of Us initiative said in a statement last weekend. “European citizens have expressed society’s concern about the need for greater protection of the human embryo. We are closer to our objective of altering the future of the embryonic stem-cell research industry in Europe and defending the weakest.”

Organisers said signatures had been collected from 17 countries by the 1 November deadline for the petition, which urges the EU to stop funding research, aid and public health activities involving embryo destruction. The EU Commission said it would decide on further action within three months, after verifying the One Of Us petition signatures.