"Laws in our country are based on values and principles and most of those are Christian ones," he said.
"Part of that is to recognise conscience in MPs and that's the reason why for important moral questions the whips are withdrawn and people are allowed to treat them as a matter of conscience and vote as individuals rather than as a party.
"It is recognised that no one party has a monopoly on morality."
Bishop Gledhill added that it was "a very important part of the Christian faith that you should have respect for human embryos" as "potential human beings".
He said, "If you stop obeying God you start to limit the rights of human beings and this is a case in point. A society has to be judged by the way that it treats its poorest and most vulnerable and weakest. And what can be weaker than an unborn child?"
Bishop Gledhill said that scientists should not be allowed to do something just because they can: "We don't have to do everything. Science must have limits."
In a separate interview for Monday's Birmingham Post, he called for a broad public debate on the issue to precede a vote in Parliament.
"We need to hear from ethics committees that have been set up, we need to hear whether it's something that the public would find acceptable, we need to see why exactly they want to carry out these experiments," he said. "I think most people are confused. It may be that if people have a horror of creating human-animal hybrids, they can reassure us."
The Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Rev Christopher Herbert, also called for a free vote.
Bishop Herbert, who was a member of the Parliamentary Joint Human Tissue and Embryos Committee which considered the Bill before it was introduced to Parliament, told the Daily Mail on Sunday: "It is a matter of conscience and I can't see why the Government should not offer a free vote."
