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The Prosser Perspective.... a weekly column from Dover and Deal MP Gwyn Prosser

3 April 2008

An old shipmate of mine died last year and for the last ten years of his life he suffered from all the cruel symptoms of steadily progressing Alzheimer’s disease. Another old friend, who was a rear gunner in the RAF recently moved into sheltered accommodation in Deal when he started suffering from memory loss and it was no longer safe for him to live independently.

There are 700,000 people with dementia in the UK but their numbers are forecast to rise to a million by 2025 and to 1.7 million by the middle of the century. There are over a hundred different types of dementia but the most common is Alzheimer’s disease which is nearly always progressive and eventually robs you of your own identity.

I’m a member of the All Party Alzheimer Group in Parliament because, in my view, it’s an area of health care that doesn’t get its fair share of funding and it’s one of many degenerative diseases that are still incurable and that’s one of the reasons why I’ll be supporting the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill when it comes to the Commons.

The Bill will allow new avenues of scientific inquiry which could greatly increase our understanding of some of the most serious and debilitating medical conditions that affect millions of people. Embryo research has been allowed for 17 years but this work has the potential to lead to new treatments at a time when such research is being significantly obstructed by a shortage of donated human eggs for medical research.

If the Bill is passed by Parliament, then within a strict regulatory framework, researchers will be able to create admixed embryos by inserting human DNA into empty animal eggs. These clumps of cells would not be allowed to culture beyond 14 days, no kind of implantation would be allowed but they could be used for stem cell research and significantly advance the treatment of some of the most deadly and debilitating diseases that afflict humankind.

The Bill was always going to be controversial, especially for some members of the Catholic Church and while I can acknowledge and respect the strong feelings of objection held by those who have a fundamental opposition to any kind of embryo research I believe that the language that some of the campaigning cardinals have adopted has only served to inflame.

Some objectors have intentionally misrepresented the Bill with their irresponsible talk of Frankenstein experiments and cloning – and just last weekend I was horrified to pick up a leaflet in Dover which had a photo showing the half face of a baby merging with the half face of a pig – how dare they !

The Bill is supported by over 200 charity groups including the Breakthrough Cancer Campaign, the British Heart Foundation and the Stroke Association because they all recognise the potential of these new techniques. The research will be too late to benefit my old mate in Deal but it offers real hope for future generations and it’s worthy of our support.