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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I listened carefully to the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Alton, and wrote down verbatim some of the things that he said. One of them was that human admixed embryo research was, "““disturbing our sense of what it is to be human””." The right reverend Prelate put something of the same feelings into his speech. Implied in that statement is the real reason for the noble Lord’s opposition to this procedure, which is moral abhorrence. We should respect his feeling and all those who share it, but the noble Lord knows that the human admixed embryo which will be created will be destroyed before it develops into a recognised organism. The legislation requires this. My noble and professional friends have explained extremely clearly how these embryos are to be used: purely for research purposes to increase our knowledge of all aspects of human development. Application of this knowledge may be useful later on for therapeutic purposes, but this research is not, as the noble Lord, Lord Alton, put it, ““a scientific sideshow””, a ““blind alley”” or a technology which will not have a viable future. The House has heard enough to put those statements in their place.