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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

Somewhat surprisingly, it may be appropriate to speak now to Amendment No. 2A, which has been tabled in the names of the noble Lord, Lord Alton, and myself. The noble Lord, Lord Patel, has lucidly illustrated to your Lordships the intimate relationship between the use of language and the activities of researchers; that is what the Bill is concerned with. The noble Lord, Lord Patel, has three sub-groups within this group. In the first he refers to a series of provisions that, possibly unintentionally, affect the research procedures that may be embarked on, and in the second he refers to developments that can be expected to take place in five to 10 years, a period in which the Bill is expected to continue, as an Act of Parliament, to provide for the contingency of those developments. It must be clear to all of us that, in the next 10 years, many unforeseen developments will arrive in this fast-moving field of research. It is undoubtedly with that in mind that the Bill’s drafters included new Clause 1(5) to give the Secretary of State the power to intervene to change the meanings of terms which are already understood to be defined in the Bill as your Lordships have it. That is in fact a power to change, possibly dramatically, the effect of the Act of Parliament that we have in mind should be put on the statute book. It is appropriate to raise that point now in order to ask Members of the Committee to have at the back of their minds throughout the discussion of this group, and every time a question of a definition or change of definition arises, the question whether that definition or change would fall under the provisions of Clause 1(5). If it would, one would have to think carefully whether some politician—not necessarily a member of a Government, let alone this one—shall be given the power to decide what shall be the effect in the years to come of what your Lordships are doing today and in the next three Committee sittings. I would submit that that is a power that we should not surrender. The reason that the Bill has attracted so much public interest and filled your Lordships’ in-trays with petitions is that it closely affects the emotions as well as the genes not only of ourselves but of future generations. If your Lordships prove sympathetic to this idea, it may well be that we should come forward on Report with an alternative means of providing for changes in the interpretation of parts of the Bill. I do not think that that should be left to the discretion of one elected or appointed member of a Government and a group of advisers who are unknown to all of us. I ask noble Lords to bear that in mind in the next hour and a half.