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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I raised this matter last November with the Government. At that time, as the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, will recall, when he replied to my Written Question it was the Government’s intention to include whole organs in the Bill. I am grateful to him and to the Government for making some change in this area, but I still have some reservations and I would be grateful if the Minister, when she responds to this brief debate, could say something about what will happen in the case of parts of organs. In Committee and at the earlier stages of Report I raised the issue of what happens if part of a liver or part of a lung is taken, and whether the Bill will permit that to occur. The noble Lord, Lord Darzi, kindly sent to a number of noble Lords a letter dated 21 January that sets out a series of useful points about this question. Does the Minister agree that it would a good letter to place in the House Library so that all noble Lords would be able to read it? In that letter the noble Lord says: "““Several noble Lords have proposed the term ‘regenerative tissue’ could be used in this context. If this term were used, it might explicitly exclude the use of cells of the umbilical cord that we are trying to capture as these may not be considered to be regenerative””." There is no difference between anyone in this House about the desirability of using umbilical cord. Many of us have made the point that to routinely destroy 98 per cent of all cord blood, as we do in this country at this time, and to have only four National Health Service hospitals collecting cord blood is itself something that we need to address. I hope the noble Baroness will say a word about that and consider again, before the Bill goes to another place, whether it might be possible to specifically exclude umbilical cord and refer to that in the Bill, and to include ““regenerative tissue”” as distinct from those things that, once taken, might not properly regenerate. There are levels of morbidity and mortality associated with the removal of parts of organs, let alone whole ones.