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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am seriously disappointed with that argument. We are talking about children who suffer from diseases that kill them within two or three years and who rarely reach the age of consent. If they do, by then they are so sick that they are not able to give consent. Yet we say that their parents cannot give consent, even if they wish to do so, because studying the progression of the disease and, it is hoped, finding a treatment is done through creating stem cell lines using the techniques of somatic cell nuclear transfer. We allow that in relation to adult diseases in the hope that a cure will be found for those diseases but we cannot allow it in respect of children, even if their parents wish it. I do not follow the logic of that argument and, if I do not follow it, perhaps others will not either. If they do not, I hope that they will follow me.