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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

The noble Lord, Lord Patel, made a very strong argument as to why the amendments of the noble Lord, Lord Alton, should not be accepted. I also served on the joint scrutiny committee and I am a former member of the Human Fertilisation Authority. I want to add one point to everything that has been said. When we talked about the nature of interspecies embryos, we said how difficult it was to collect human eggs. This point has been well made but another point must be taken very seriously. If we are to continue with interspecies embryo research—I absolutely agree with those who say that we should and must—we must also recognise that there is a risk posed to women from overstimulation of their ovaries. It is not a great risk but it is a risk. Adopting the technology of using animal eggs and human sperm to give us material on which we can do this research, which has the potential to be so very useful, is in my view preferable to encouraging more women to have their ovaries stimulated than need to do so for treatment purposes. We should look not only at the potential for the alleviation of suffering that this area of research might bring, but at trying to prevent suffering that could result if too much overstimulation of women’s ovaries should occur other than for treatment. We should take that point very seriously.