---

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

Perhaps I may add an eminently evident and obvious point—that many members of the authority were social workers, nurses, parents, teachers and others with similar concerns. Others were experts in computing, which is obviously important, while others were councillors or men of the cloth, as I said. All those professions were taken account of, and that work is by no means a soft option. The Committee will wish to know that in my day it was extremely badly paid, although that may have changed. One did this sort of job not for glory or for pay but simply out of commitment. It was a very heavily loaded, time-consuming and demanding job in which one learnt a great deal, both pleasurable and painful. The welfare of the child was the number one ethical principle embedded in the law, and it is embedded in the statute that your Lordships are considering. The principles include the welfare of the child, the safety of the mother and baby, respect for the embryo, the autonomy and dignity of every individual involved in treatment and the receipt of treatment, and, more recently, the saving of life. You can ask for no broader or more all-encompassing ethical principles than those.