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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I very heartily support the amendment. No privilege attaches to communications between doctors and patients in the same way as it does between lawyers and clients. In France, of course, under the Code Napoléon, medical confidentiality is absolute. However, over many years the General Medical Council—of which I once had the privilege to be president—struggled with medical confidentiality issues and came up with the recognition that there are circumstances where it is perfectly proper for a doctor to breach confidentiality, not least in a situation such as assisting the police in the investigation of a serious crime. Even in a lesser situation, such as where an individual continues to drive against his or her doctor’s advice despite having repeated epileptic attacks, the doctor has the right, after explaining everything to the patient, to report them to the licensing authorities. Many other exclusions can arise. One of the principles of medical care is that it is proper, usually with the patient’s consent, to share medical information with other members of the healthcare team involved in the medical care of that individual. In that situation, because the rules relating to the HFEA and the disclosure of information about individuals who have undergone IVF treatment are so clear, so precise and so restrictive, there is every likelihood that a doctor involved in clinical practice—not least in gynaecology or in giving advice on other infertility issues in the course of ordinary clinical practice—may inadvertently breach the HFEA rules. That is particularly the case if the individual in question not only practises, say, as a gynaecologist or as someone interested in the problem of infertility, but works in a HFEA-licensed centre as a clinician. They could well be in breach of the Act and liable to criminal prosecution for revealing information about IVF treatment that had previously been undertaken, which would be clearly very important in the management of that individual’s care. One could give many other examples, but I can only say that I strongly support the amendment, because the principles are of crucial importance to the practice of medicine.