UK: Catholic Church Outraged Over Gordon Brown's Stem Cell Bill

Telegraph.co.UK: Embryo Bill sparks Labour row with church, by Andrew Porter and Caroline Gammell:

The row over the Government's flagship Embryology Bill threatened to escalate into one of the most serious crises of Gordon Brown's premiership, as a war of words erupted between senior Labour figures and the Roman Catholic Church.

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A succession of senior Catholic churchmen used their Easter addresses to criticise the legislation and intensify the pressure on Mr Brown to allow his Catholic MPs a free vote when the Commons debates the Bill later this year.

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But Mr Brown is refusing to let the MPs and ministers vote against the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which he believes will lead to major advances in medicine and the treatment of fatal diseases.