Teenagers should be given the right to medically assisted suicide and the parents of terminally ill younger children should be able to choose euthanasia under proposals from members of Belgium's coalition government.
In the News
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March 27th, 2008
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March 26th, 2008
Watch how the story unfolded on TV news - Cameron demanding free votes at PMQs two weeks running, a succession of Catholic leaders over the Easter weekend demanding free votes and Brown caving in to the demands on Tuesday 25th.
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March 26th, 2008
Gordon Brown executed an embarrassing U-turn yesterday as he ceded to pressure from the Roman Catholic Church to offer Labour MPs free votes on legal changes for embryo and fertility research.
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March 26th, 2008
Gordon Brown's tactical retreat on the hybrid embryo question followed strong attacks by Catholic Church leaders during the Easter weekend over his refusal to allow his MPs a free vote. Although ministers are now confident the Bill will be approved, some Labour MPs are concerned that the row has damaged Labour and should have been defused more quickly.
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March 26th, 2008
Embryo research has pitted scientists against bishops, caused a cabinet split and divided the country. Religion, politics, medicine and ethics all collide in a debate that boils down to the question above
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March 26th, 2008
Gordon Brown yesterday succumbed to pressure from the Catholic church and some cabinet colleagues to allow Labour MPs a free vote on the most controversial parts of the embryology bill.
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March 26th, 2008
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March 25th, 2008
The orchestrated attacks on the Roman Catholic church by ministers, scientists and medical charities have done nothing to advance the debate over the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
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March 25th, 2008
Why didn?t Gordon Brown give Labour MPs a free vote in the first place?
There was a fear within government that opponents of research using human embryos would table wrecking amendments to the Bill unless its progress was tightly controlled. When the legislation passed though the Lords, Labour peers were on three-line whips to vote as ministers directed...
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March 25th, 2008
You don?t have to be Roman Catholic to find elements of the new Bill troubling