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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I do not know whether I am the only Member of your Lordships’ House who, after this 45 minutes, and after helpful explication of the language of the ““human admixed embryo””, is left thinking that the previous phrase, ““interspecies embryo””, was clearer for the man or woman in the street, the church or the mosque, than what we now offer. My second point is equally brisk. It is of course true, as the noble Lord, Lord Winston, and others have said, that some of those who have been writing letters to many or all of us have this vision of the creation of a monster. However, we would be wrong to suggest that that is what most people who are anxious about this phrase and this entity, the interspecies embryo, have in mind. I do not believe that the vast majority of those who are concerned about this point—we shall test that concern later—are worried about the creation of monsters; they are worrying about the point that the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury made earlier.