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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her response. Most of all, I thank those noble Lords who so strongly supported this amendment. I was merely a spokesman for colleagues, who hold a licence to treat infertile women and to provide in vitro treatment, and who come across this problem on a daily basis. The amendment clearly does not apply to situations in which gametes or embryos are donated. It applies to women who are undergoing in vitro fertilisation. I shall give another example of something that used to happen on a weekly basis. When my colleagues, who were treating patients with infertility, were successful in achieving pregnancy by in vitro fertilisation and their patient’s care was passed on to me as an obstetrician, they used to have whisper the name of the patient to me in the corridor. I would then go and mark the notes with a red star so that my team would understand what that meant. Not being a licence-holder, presumably I was not committing a criminal act. However, if my colleague had put that down or written me a letter saying, ““Please look after this lady””, that might, without consent, have been regarded as a criminal act. Therefore, there are issues to be handled. The Minister was hesitant in replying, which meant that she was finding difficulty in knowing why such draconian confidentiality rules are put there in the first place. They are draconian and unnecessary. We are talking about what is now a well accepted medical treatment for people who are infertile. It is not 1978, when Louise Brown was born. It is not even 1990, when this Act was passed. It is today and more than a million children are born through this procedure. I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Winston, will know the exact figures.