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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

The noble Baroness, Lady Barker, has just said that she thinks that her amendment is a compromise that will satisfy nobody. However, if I might say so, I believe that it gets the balance right on this very sensitive and difficult issue. I am sure that we are all conscious of the sensitivity here. When I first became a member of the HFEA, I certainly found it difficult to take on board the strongly made arguments that children should know all the facts of their birth at the earliest stages, because, like most people born in these islands, I am fairly reticent. I have a great respect for family privacy and I find it difficult to think that everything should be blazoned abroad. However, over the years I have come to realise the importance of truthfulness and transparency. Amendment No. 68A in the names of the noble Baronesses, Lady Barker and Lady Warnock, and the noble Earl, Lord Howe, gets the balance about right between the importance of truthfulness and transparency, on the one hand, and, on the other, a proper and very important respect for family privacy and the parents’ roles and responsibilities in revealing to children the circumstances of their birth in their own proper way.