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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

I recollect well the factual exchange that I had with the noble Viscount, Lord Craigavon, and I remember perhaps even more distinctly when I first got the papers myself and learnt what they contained about these statistics. The essential thing that was put to our Joint Committee was that, in that case, the state is accepting the evidence that is available at the time of the birth, of course with the presumption that my noble friend Lord Howe referred to. The distinction between that and the case that we are considering here was put in the committee on the basis that it is the state conniving with the situation, because the state regulates the procedure under which the donor conception takes place. Therefore, the state is, as it were, a party to the false presentation if donor conception is not mentioned. Another way of tackling this has only occurred to me while listening to the discussion. The licensed clinic, or centre, or the HFEA could have an obligation to send a confidential communication to the child at a given age and, before it did so, it should warn the parents that that was going to happen. That is a possible way to preserve confidentiality from the world at large while still telling the child. I was not sure in older times whether the child would necessarily be followed up either by the licensed centre or the HFEA, but in light of the need for research in following up donor-conceived children, the records of those children will be available. It occurs to me as being a possible way of having confidentiality and also the discharge of the state’s responsibility to make the facts known to the person affected without telling the whole world.