Justice Kirby told the bioethics advisory panel of the bishops conference it looked "increasingly likely" that sexual orientation would be shown to be genetic - like race, skin colour or gender.
His paper considered the implications of the
Human Genome Project.
"If sexual orientation is part of the genome of our species, a serious moral question is plainly presented. By what right can we say that it is not part of nature's - or God's - great purpose? That purpose, as the Church has taught, is not always clear to us, mere mortals."
"If it were determined that sexual orientation is indeed a genetic phenomenon - and thus beyond the the 'wicked' choosing of a 'wilful' individual - prima facie to discriminate upon that basis would be as morally impermissible, and even repugnant, as to discriminate upon any other genetic basis."
"It might even be said that this is one genetic condition that should be eliminated in whatever way possible"
"Indeed, the (Emeritus) Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth . . . (Lord Jakobovits), controversially, suggested that this should be done to get rid of homosexuals, thereby provoking cries of outrage from Holocaust survivors and other Jewish intellectuals"
Justic Kirby serves on the ethics committee of the Human Genome Organisation.
