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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I shall try to redress the balance in what I see as a very one-sided view of womankind, especially of women in this situation. We were asked whether it was right for a woman to subject herself to this procedure for the sake of an existing child, but I ask whether it is not her right, if this technique is available and it has been suggested to her, to choose to go down that road for her existing child. It is surely her choice to make, and she must make it. We were also asked whether this child would become subservient—I think that was the term—to its sick sibling and a commodity for the use of the sick child. We must think a little harder about what goes on in women’s minds and bodies. It certainly happened to me over three pregnancies and deliveries and to many patients with whom I have dealt in the past. Women always worry terribly about how on earth they will be able to love two or three babies as much as one. In fact, when the second child is born, 99.9 per cent of the time they are overwhelmed by exactly the same emotions towards that child as they were towards their first child. We have so far not taken into account the fact that a woman, having given birth to a saviour sibling for her first child, will love that child just as much as she loves the sick child, and will therefore protect its interests and balance out the interests of the sick child with the needs of the healthy child. This needs to be said, because women are not stupid. They love their children, and they are not going to sacrifice one child whom they love dearly and who happens to be healthy for the sake of a sick child whom they also love dearly, as the options become more and more difficult. If we are worried about the extent of the tissue that may be used from the saviour sibling, that again will depend on whether the mother is prepared to let her beloved child go through that procedure and whether she feels that it is in anyone’s interests—the family’s interests, her interests—to go that far. Once the child becomes old enough to make up their own mind, will they not be in the same position as a brother or sister who happens to match the tissue type of any other brother and sister in a family, all normally conceived, who would opt to give a kidney or a piece of their liver to a brother or sister? We have to have a more balanced view of how a mother will react in this situation and not totally reject this technology, which may be on offer.