For once, Mr Foster, you voted right way

8:02am Tuesday 3rd June 2008

SIR - The Government should be congratulated, not demonised, for following the bumpy road of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, acting responsibly and reasonably (at last).

Nick Chance (May 29) is right to say that the Embryology Bill confronted "an ethical principle of the highest order". But he is wrong over what was at stake. This was not about science versus conscience. It was about enlightened, humanistic morality versus an uninformed, absolutist morality.

The Government, listening to the medical arguments, effectively decided that it is morally right to pursue research which could alleviate the suffering and save the lives of thousands, and in time millions of people.

Now, Mike Foster MP almost exclusively votes in accordance with his party line. Some would argue, therefore, that his responsibilities are more-or-less deferred to the cabal of higher-ups who make the decisions within his party.

However, just as a stopped clock must be right twice a day, so Mike Foster must sometimes be right to go with the flow.

Nick Chance wrote that Mike Foster "will have to live with his conscience". But for once Foster's conscience can rest at its current level of psychological disturbance, because happily it turns out that this time towing the line meant voting the right way.

Bob Churchill, Worcester.