The human embryo: “One of Us”

Archbishop Peter Smith renews call to sign up to ‘One of Us’ as the petition collects its millionth signature:

You may recall that earlier in the year, I invited people to sign up to the ‘One of Us’ campaign.  This pan-European initiative aims to stop EU funding for activities which result in the destruction of human embryos.  Thank you to all those who have already made their voice heard through signing up to the campaign.  A significant milestone was reached last week, with the one millionth signature being collected, and this means that ‘One of Us’ leaders will now be given an official public hearing in the European Parliament to outline the need for legislation to protect the human embryo.

Sunday 22^nd September has been set aside as the ‘One of Us Click and Sign’ day and I warmly invite and encourage you to do just that – ‘to Click and Sign’ – it takes two minutes from start to finish.  The petition officially closes on 1 November and organisers hope that thousands more will sign up to the petition before that date.

Here is the explanation of the campaign from their website.

1.  The campaign idea and name was developed by the Italian Pro-Life Movement under the leadership of MEP Carlo Casini, and specifically as fruit of his lifetime commitment to working towards full protection for the human embryo.

The ‘One of Us’ campaign underlines the moment of conception as the beginning of human life, and aims to prevent any funding of activities which result in the destruction of human embryos, particularly focusing on areas of research, development aid and public health.

The initiative follows a recent European Court of Justice judgment (Brustle vs. Greenpeace (Germany)), which upheld the special nature of the human embryo.

2.  The campaign will be taken forward using the vehicle of a European Citizens’ Initiative which is a newly established legal instrument which allows citizens across the EU to propose legislation if it falls within the scope of EU competency.

Such an initiative must have the support of at least 7 of the 27 member states and each individual state involved must collect a minimum number of signatures based on its overall population.

An overall number of at least one million European citizens must adhere to the proposal.

3.  54,000 signatures are required from the UK to fulfil our quota.

To take part in this campaign you must be resident in a EU State, be 18 or over and eligible to vote in the European Elections.

4.  How to sign on:

We are focusing exclusively on online collection and this can be done easily at: http://www.oneofus.eu

Just click on ‘SIGN’ at the top of the page and follow the instructions, including clicking on the ‘support’  button, and ‘United Kingdom’ of course when asked for your country identification.

It takes 2 minutes from start to finish to register a vote in support of the humanity of the human embryo.

5.  The petition deadline is November 2013 but we need to move very quickly to reach our quota.

See their website here. And especially the FAQs here.