I recently went to France for the weekend with my son and we came across a large charity event, where you could pay for a ride in a Ferrari. My son is car mad, so, as an early Christmas present, I said that he could have a go.
It seemed to be a national event as there was also a telethon taking place. The charity's leaflets showed a photo of a young girl, so I presumed it was a children's charity and didn't think any more about it.
It was only later, when I read the leaflet, that I found out it was a charity dedicated to genetic research. My heart sank, as I could imagine that they used human embryos. Shamefully, I was also a little glad I hadn't known beforehand, as my son would have been so upset if I had promised him a ride and had then said he couldn't have it.
I thought some more about how most pro-lifers would refuse treatment for themselves or for their children if the treatment was a result of genetic research on embryos, and then I realised I'd done something far worse by helping fund it!
I decided in the end to contact the charity and ask them to give my money to another children's charity. I explained in my email the reasons behind my request. I just hope they understand. Some people can't see a problem with using aborted embryos for genetic results, as they see it as something good coming out of something bad. I do understand their point of view but it also feels wrong to benefit from something so tragic and so fundamentally wrong.
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Whilst she's posting Chris' words up, Anneli adds, "Thanks for sharing your experience, Chris, and well done for sticking to your principles. It can't have been easy to write that email. I think this is a situation more and more of us will be coming across these days with regards to medical research. I myself came across something similar with regard to a charity that's been supporting my daughter (see previous blog post - unfortunately we've never received a reply from the charity in question).
"St John's Pro Life Group has been having the very discussion Chris alludes to recently with regard to the morality of using vaccines, like the rubella vaccine, which are developed using a cell line derived from an aborted foetus. We will post more about this dilemma soon!"
