---

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 9: 9: Clause 4, page 4, line 12, at beginning insert ““Subject to sub-paragraphs (6)(a) and (6)(b) of Schedule 2 to this Act,”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I hope that it will be accepted that, while I move Amendment No. 9, it stands in the place of Amendment No. 41 and that any vote on Amendment No. 9 would constitute a vote on Amendment No. 41. I recognise that the hour is growing late and I do not wish to detain the House for long, but let me distinguish clearly between this amendment and the previous amendment, as there is some overlap in the debate. The purpose of Amendment No. 8, moved by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, with regard to what I still call mixed species because I find it hard to remember the phrase ““admixed species””, was to refuse any longer to accept trans-species research. The proposal in this amendment very straightforwardly says that a licence should not be granted by the HFEA except where it is clear that there is no alternative to embryonic cell research. The amendment would not rule out embryonic cell research. It accepts that for some purposes embryonic cell research may be absolutely essential, but it proposes a definite requirement in the award of any licence that there has to be peer review and research evidence to show that embryonic stem cell research is necessary. In other words, we would give a preference to adult stem cell research over embryonic stem cell research and that preference would clearly be built into the licensing process. The reason for that is clear. When the 2001 regulations were debated in this House, a view was taken that adult stem cell research would probably not be a very exciting or creative line of research and that therefore embryonic stem cell research was bound to be the central theme behind the processes of stem cell research in general. My view, which is shared by many, is that you have to make out the strong case for embryonic cell research because of the ethical objections to it. That means that licences should be tightened up and should be awarded for embryonic cell research only where no other form of cell research can be shown to be effective. This would require two changes in HFEA licensing: first, evidence to show the efficacy of such research and that it was needed; secondly and crucially, evidence to show that it was the one way forward. We believe that embryonic cell research should be left to where it is the absolutely required factor where other forms of research would be likely to be unsuccessful. In his response to my speech on the earlier amendment, the Minister was kind enough to say that there had been or was now an almost equivalent expenditure under the HFEA between adult stem cell research and other forms of cell research, particularly embryonic cell research. He is absolutely correct in what he says. Yet it is also true that in the six years since 2001, when the House passed the regulations, there has been a steep increase in expenditure on adult stem cell research, which was not true at the beginning of that process when little money was found for it because the scientific community had little faith in it. We have put forward this proposal not to completely rule out embryonic cell research but to indicate that it should always be, as it were, the residuary factor: the requirement must be very clear. One reason for this was exemplified by the remarks about the shortage of human eggs, which was one of the reasons why we argued for a—I am sorry that I keep using the old phraseology—mixed-species form of embryo. Such research is necessary because, as the noble Lord, Lord Winston, said, there is a great shortage of human eggs. Yet you would not require so many human eggs if you relied much more on adult stem cell research than on embryonic stem cell research, because most such research that could be done in either way would be primarily done by adult stem cell research. That is the reason for Amendment No. 9, which would tighten up the licensing system of the HFEA, indicating that, although the licensing system does not rule out embryonic stem cell research, such research is the lesser preference. The first preference should be adult stem cell research. This would balance a situation in which, until recent years, adult stem cell research has tended to be somewhat disregarded. I should perhaps say ““human admixed embryos”” and apologise for having used the old terminology. I am referring throughout to human admixed embryos, the term that the House has passed and which it is a requirement for me to respect. There is now extremely exciting evidence of the remarkable achievements in adult stem cell research. It is growing in all directions. It is probably growing in other countries even more than here. It is a way forward that leaves out some of the great drawbacks of embryonic cell research, not just the ethical issues but also issues of supply and immunity. I will not detain the House long, because we had this debate earlier, but in moving this amendment I also stress the need to build in this element of preference. Finally, I must apologise to the House. I rose to the challenge when the noble Lords, Lord Winston and Lord Patel, spoke because they addressed the alternatives of adult stem cell research and embryonic cell research. I was so carried away by the desire to put the other side of the case that I made that case largely on the last amendment and I should have made it on this one. I was not unique in that, because the noble Lords, Lord Winston and Lord Patel, made the same point, but I ask people in deciding how to deal with this amendment to recall the debate on the last amendment, too. I beg to move.