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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I strongly support the amendment laid before your Lordships today by the noble Baroness, Lady Williams of Crosby. She cogently and persuasively argued its merits. They are merits that we have discussed at earlier stages and, mindful of the injunction placed on us earlier, I will not be repetitive, but one or two new points need to be addressed. The first is that the amendment clearly does not ban any of the things to which the noble Lord, Lord Winston, referred a moment ago. I think that he would accept that nothing in the amendment would prevent him or any other scientist laying an application before the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to undertake research. It is simply that the noble Baroness has laid out the criteria that would be required before that research application is met. Indeed, that is precisely what happens under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. I have experience of my local ethics committee, on which I served for my university, where applications for the use of animals are gone through thoroughly first before they are submitted to the Home Office. The Home Office has turned down 3.5 per cent of all applications. When the Minister comes to reply, I would be grateful if she could confirm that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has only ever once turned down an application. When that application came back before the HFEA, it was subsequently approved. Therefore, the argument that the noble Baroness placed before your Lordships' House absolutely stands. The fact is that 2.2 million human embryos have been destroyed—as the noble Lord, Lord Winston, said, mainly through IVF cycles—or experimented on since 1990. It is not unreasonable to ask how many more will be needed before we see any therapies provided, even if one thought that it was licit to use them in the first place, which I do not. I accept that the amendment is an attempt to uphold the special respect and status adumbrated in the report of the noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, back in 1986, and which was incorporated in the 1990 legislation. My other point is about public confidence—an issue to which the noble Baroness referred. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority itself conducted a survey last summer run by ICM. It found that 48 per cent of UK residents disagreed with scientists creating an embryo that contains mostly human with a small amount of animal genetic material purely for research, compared with only 34 per cent who agreed. Many people, therefore, do not concur with some of the provision in this Bill. Overall, 47 per cent—nearly half—agreed that creating embryos for research with mostly human, and a small amount of animal genetic material, concerned them. They said that it was meddling with nature. Nearly half—49 per cent—agreed that creating embryos for research with mostly human and a small amount of animal genetic material, concerned them because of what scientists might want to do next in research. Just over two-fifths—some 41 per cent—agreed that creating embryos for research with mostly human and a small amount of animal genetic material concerned them because they thought that it might be put into a woman or an animal, even though that was against the law. Those are the anxieties that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority discovered in the population at large. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for this type of proposal to be incorporated in the Bill. It is an ethical minimum that, for many of us, would not go far enough. However, at the last stage of this Bill, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, said that, "““it would help in reassuring people if we decided to include this amendment in the Bill.—[Official Report, 15/1/08; col. 1231.]" At present, I am inclined to believe that the HFEA may be less stringent than the Home Office in evaluating research proposals. Current requirements do not require cogent evidence which must include published peer-reviewed scientific data. Sending licence applications to peer reviewers is by no means equivalent. For example, they might not be aware of all the relevant work relating, as the noble Baroness has said, to adult stem cells, reprogrammed adult cells or umbilical cord stem cells. It is important that there is specific peer-reviewed data which can be examined, rather than merely opinion or assumption. Her Majesty’s Government have clearly been persuaded to permit research with transgenic human embryos, true hybrids and various interspecies entities, for which there is no current scientific demand or scientific consensus as to their necessity. Therefore the clear safeguards, provided by the Hunt test, are essential to ensure that all such research has a sound scientific basis and can proceed only where it has been demonstrated that no alternatives exist. I hope that this amendment will be supported by noble Lords today.