In a letter dated 14/5/19, this charity stated: “We do not provide specialist reproductive healthcare services. Women and girls who are referred to us or who access our services have experienced sexual violence. They may have additional reproductive healthcare needs, including contraception and terminations, but these services would be provided by a specialist reproductive healthcare provider in their locality such as BPAS, Marie Stopes, NHS and Brook.”

In a letter dated 17 April 2019, this charity stated: “We are not currently funding any research that uses human embryos. Where stem cells are used by researchers, they are usually induced pluripotent stem cells. These are mature human cells, taken from skim biopsies or blood samples, that are re-programmed to return to an embryonic-like state and can then be coaxed to develop into retinal cells.
“All research we fund must have clear potential to benefit people with IRD and the research must be conducted following robust legal, ethical and regulatory frameworks.” [#AMRC#]

Rett syndrome is a rare non-inherited genetic postnatal neurological disorder that occurs almost exclusively in girls and leads to severe impairments, affecting nearly every aspect of the child’s life: their ability to speak, walk, eat, and even breathe easily.
In a letter dated 23/4/2019, the Executive Director of this charity stated: “I can confirm that neither Reverse Rett, nor any organisations that we financially support, conduct any research on human embryos.
“Laboratory research in Rett Syndrome is largely concentrated on mouse models of the disorder. There are some experiments using human cell lines, but these are cell lines of living people with Rett Syndrome taken from skin cells.” [#AMRC#]

In a letter dated 20/5/19, the charity stated: “As a hospital and a medical charity, we follow the current state of the law and so not subscribe to any attempts to change it. We therefore do not have a statement on assisted dying.
“Secondly, our research does not involve the use of human embryos, and we do not provide financial support to organisations or campaigns that do.
“We do respect the rights of individuals with capacity to have their ventilation stopped, and we do have a process for determining whether patients in Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness (PDOC) should have their Clinically Assisted Nutrition and Hydration (CANH) stopped.”

In a letter dated 30/8/2018 stated that it does fund “a small amount of research using cells from human embryos”.
“We take very seriously the ethical issues involved and believe it is important that there is continuing open and informed public debate about this area of research.” [#AMRC#]

In a letter dated 12/12/2018 this organisation stated: “I can confirm that we do not fund research involving human embryo experimentation.
“Looking to the future we are setting out on a programme of work to find a cure for osteoporosis… At present this would not entail research using human embryos, but if research was needed to get to the fundamental cause of osteoporosis then we would need to consider very carefully all the methods of how we can advance our understanding of the mechanisms of the disease.” [#AMRC#]

“The Salvation Army believes that life is a gift from God and we are answerable to God for the taking of life, whatever the circumstance. Therefore, on only certain limited grounds may a termination of pregnancy be morally acceptable. These may include:

• Where the life of the mother would be in jeopardy as a consequence of the pregnancy.
• Where reliable diagnostic procedures have determined that there is an abnormality of the foetus that is considered to be incompatible with life for more than a very brief post-natal period.

“In addition we recognise that pregnancy occurring as the result of rape presents a special case as the act that produced the pregnancy violated the whole person of the mother and the violation may be compounded by the continuation of the pregnancy.
“Whilst acknowledging the legal provision for a termination of pregnancy, the Salvation Army believes the life of the unborn child should be emphasised.”
https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/positional-statements

In a letter dated 14/5/2019, this organisation stated: “The issue of assisted dying is very complex. Individual people’s views on assisted suicide are often strongly linked to their ethical, moral and personal beliefs and their own experiences and feelings. For Samaritans, our more important consideration is that we offer non-judgemental and confidential emotional support to anyone in distress. Should someone ask about assisted dying on our helpline, our volunteers are trained to give that person the space and opportunity to discuss their thoughts and feelings without fear of repercussions. To answer your question directly, we are not currently funding any campaigns to promote assisted dying nor do we have any links to organisations that do.
“To answer your question on whether or not we support or refer women to organisations that provide sexual health services, again I would say that our support is there for anyone, regardless of their circumstances. Our volunteers are able to signpost callers to other organisations if we feel they would be more beneficial or appropriate than our helpline, however we would not be able to refer anyone directly to an organisation that provides reproductive health services. Firstly, as our helpline is confidential, we would not know where in the country the caller is phoning from. Secondly, one of our key values is for people to make their own decisions, so our volunteers would always aim to give the caller the time and space to talk about what they want to do and how they are feeling. We believe that people have the right to find their own solution and that telling people what to do takes responsibility away from them.”

In a letter dates 29/4/2019, this charity stated: “As an Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) member charity we take their lead on policies such as animal testing and genome editing in human cells. Therefore, we have not developed our own position.” [#AMRC#]