Over 850,000 people have signed the petition to protect human embryos in Europe. Have you?

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 (see previous CMF update by Philippa Taylor  for more detail). 

It was launched in January 2013 by leaders in twenty European countries and follows a European Court of Justice ruling in 2011, in a lawsuit brought by Greenpeace, that human life begins at conception and deserves legal protection (See my previous blogs on the ruling here and here).

‘One of Us’ is a European Citizen Initiative, a new method provided in the Treaty of Lisbon for proposing legislation in the European Union.

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. 

If the campaign gathers one million signatures, the European Parliament is duty-bound to schedule a debate on the issue.

So far 180,000 signatures have been gathered, leaving only 150,000 more required by November 2013.

Currently, European policies are at odds with the European Court of Justice decision.

Europe today is funding scientific research that destroys and manipulates embryos and funds international groups touting abortion.

With the recognition of life from the moment of conception, Europe’s policies would shift in favour of unborn life.

How to sign

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.

To sign the petition you need to go to the ‘One of Us’ website (click here) and follow the few simple instructions.

It takes about two minutes from start to finish.

The ‘One of Us’ campaign reminds us that we were all embryos once. 

But some scientific research activities destroy human embryos.

Further background

3.8 million human embryos created to produce 122,000 live births – success rate of 3.2%

The moral status of the human embryo – when is a person?