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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

I take us right back to the speech of noble Baroness, Lady Deech, who set us off on this debate some hours ago. In the debate, a number of very different issues have been conflated in ways that are not altogether helpful. Issues about how and whether children should know their genetic identity have been mixed with attitudes towards existing law, such as civil partnerships. When noble Lords go back to read this debate, they will see that two or three different factors are being mixed together. I want to ask the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, one simple thing. Will she make available to the Committee the 80—the noble Baroness, Lady O’Cathain, cited the figure of 100—pieces of research? The noble Lord, Lord Winston, made a very important point. In areas of social policy, it is extremely important to work from an evidence base. One thing that has worried me all afternoon is that people have made extrapolations from different pieces of research and drawn comparisons that are false. Noble Lords have made extrapolations from the UNICEF report. The UNICEF report showed that in terms of children's well-being, this country was in a very bad way, but it also showed conclusively that economic status of a family had a great impact on the well-being of children in a number of different aspects of their life chances. The noble Baroness, Lady Deech, made a couple of remarks that I found extraordinary. She talked about studies that showed that same-sex couples—in Sweden, I think—had a median relationship of 25 months. I do not know, because I do not know what the research is, but it is entirely possible that that includes everyone from teenagers through to people who are very old and on to a second relationship. It does not present any kind of data valid to those gay couples who would consider themselves to be the right ones to bring up children and offer stability. I cite those as two examples; there may be more. The noble Baroness talked about the need for children to see parents of the opposite sex and the importance of their being brought up in relationships in which there is no denigration of the opposite sex. I assume from that that she is assuming that in gay relationships, there would be denigration of the opposite sex. I do not know the basis on which she makes that assertion. I simply ask her to make her evidence available to all noble Lords, so that we can come to a conclusion. I want to make one point that has not been made all afternoon. Bear in mind that we are talking about clinicians carrying out one particular treatment. I trust that clinicians use the same basis to judge any person who presents to them for that treatment. That is what clinicians do across the board. They do not make sweeping judgments about groups within the population; they look at the needs of the person presenting to them. When they do that, one judgment that they make is the consequence of their not providing that treatment. I hope that noble Lords will accept that I think that the welfare of children is paramount in all this. If single women and gay couples are intent on fulfilling what for them is—I accept the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit—not a right but an understandable urge to have children, it is better for them to have access to health treatment that is safe for them and for the children who result. That is all that is being asked for: equality of consideration.