One of Us asks the EU to end the financing of activities which destroys the human embryos. More precisely, the initiative demands of the EU that :
"No budget allocation will be made for the funding of activities that destroys human embryos, or that presumes their destruction", as in particular for "research activities that destroy human embryos, including those aimed at obtaining stem cells, and research involving the use of human embryonic stem cells in subsequent steps to obtain them" and for "abortion, directly or indirectly, through the funding of organisations that encourage or promote abortion."
As pro-life leaders across the EU celebrated the good news, Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute said a "major thank you" was due to the pro-life community in Ireland "who had rallied to sign up to the One of Us campaign despite a very difficult year".
She said that the initiative was a superb example of grassroots activism, and praised the young volunteers in Youth Defence who had made a trojan effort in encouraging signatures and getting the Irish number of supporters past the quota to obtain almost 11,000 Irish signatures.
Ms Uí Bhriain also commended former MEP, Dana Rosemary Scallon, for launching the initiative in Ireland and said that Ms Scallon's experience in joining pro-life leaders at a pan-European level was invaluable during the initiative, as was the work done by Ireland United for Life in gathering thousands of signatures.
Clare Molloy of Youth Defence said that "in a very difficult year for Ireland, the pro-life community took heart from the huge success of the pro-life initiative".
She said that the initiative looked to the recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling (Brüstle vs. Greenpeace) to ensure the EU recognised that human life began at fertilisation.
The Court's decision laid down an important definition of the human embryo as meaning "any human ovum after fertilisation, any non-fertilised human ovum into which the cell nucleus from a mature human cell has been transplanted, and any non-fertilised human ovum whose division and further development have been stimulated by parthenogenesis".
The ruling banned patenting any stem-cell process that involves destroying a human embryo.
Ms Molloy said that science had established when human life began, the European Courts had acknowledged the rights of the human embryo, and the European Commission must now listen to the 1.7 million citizens who wished to ensure that the human embryo was protected.
"The One of Us campaign is a great achievement. It's people power and democracy in action," she said.
youthdefence.ie
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