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Proceeding contribution from Baroness Hollis of Heigham (Labour) in the House of Lords on Monday, 3 December 2007. It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL) and Debate on bill on Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL].


Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

I am sorry to intervene, but I have a real problem here about the issue of good faith and bad faith. It seems to me that if a body is set up by law, to seek to go on to it to undermine what it was set up to establish raises an issue of bad faith. Many years ago, I was asked as a local councillor to sit on the board of a girls’ public day school trust. I said that I was committed to education, but that they should realise that I did not believe in fee-paying schools and I thought that, in that context, there was an issue of bad faith. They said, ““Thank you very much. We think that, as a result, perhaps you should not sit on our board because you are at core opposed to the objectives of the organisation””. They were honourable; I tried to be honourable; and that was that. It seems to me a little odd to demand the right—when you have failed to win an argument in the parliamentary forum, which is the appropriate place for an array of voices to be heard—to sit on the administrative body to undermine that which Parliament has established because you do not believe in its core principles. That raises an issue of bad faith.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
696 c1596-7 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Fertility Human embryo experiments Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority IVF Parents Medicine Research Stem cells
Legislation
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (HL) 2007-08
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk