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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, the noble Baroness stood up so quickly that I did not have chance to stand up. I should like to make two brief points. First, I say to the right reverend Prelate that I hope that children are brought up in an atmosphere where they know from a very early age. We know from all the work in adoption that children fare much better when they know about their situation when they are very young indeed. It does not then come as a shock later on. Children who suddenly discover, at quite a young age, that they are adopted, find that extremely difficult to deal with. I remember talking to a child of four, when I was on Childline, about what ““adopted”” meant because she had just found out and was in a slight state of shock. She was being helped by an older child to call Childline to talk about this. I did not have the opportunity to make my second point, but having spoken to a number of donor families, the thing that really concerns them is not being ordinary families. I understand that and we want them to be ordinary families as much as they can in bringing up their children. We want to get to the most resistant families who do not want to engage in telling the children at all about their backgrounds. That is why I shall support the later amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, on research into how this process has worked through. In the guidance, has the noble Baroness thought about the kind of materials that might be available to help the various authorities in knowing how to tell children, because that can be quite daunting? We have learnt from adoption that materials alongside counselling can be helpful because you have something in your hand that you can take away.