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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I, too, warmly support this amendment. I was heavily involved in the discussions on the original Bill in 1989 and 1990. At that time, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill was directed towards establishing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, deciding on mechanisms that could be used to improve the treatment of human infertility and moving towards mechanisms that could prevent the birth of children suffering from serious genetic disease. No clause in that Bill made it possible to use embryonic cells. The experiments were licensed for up to 14 days after fertilisation, but no clause in the Bill allowed any derivative cells produced from such experiments to be used for the treatment of disease. However, in 2001, we debated the regulations to allow therapeutic cloning. I had every belief that, when those regulations were passed by a very large majority, they would enable stem cells derived from embryonic research to be used for the treatment of human disease. I was surprised to find that that was not the case and that, although research leading to therapeutic development was allowed under the Act and the regulations, the use of stored embryos and the stem cells derived from them for treatment of human disease was not. As my noble friend Lord Patel and the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, have said, once you derive cells for treatment, a whole series of regulatory mechanisms has to be examined: the European regulations, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency regulations and others. The amendment is crucial to make certain that cells derived from stored embryos can be used for treatment, subject always to the regulations that follow. I am surprised after the 2001 vote on therapeutic cloning that this is not possible under the existing Act. It is therefore important that the amendment should be included in the Bill.