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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I support the amendment in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Walton and Lord Patel, concerning existing cell lines donated by patients who may or may not have given their consent to embryo research. We are assuming that they did not give their consent. It seems to me that a lot of patients in that situation, as the noble Lord, Lord Alton, said, would not have conceived that this sort of thing could happen in the future, but many of them may have conceived that, yes, it might happen; and when such people donate their cells they are prepared to let medical scientists research in any way that they choose within the guidance of the Government of the day. The Government seem to be most worried about Article 8 of the human rights convention. There is a very good response from the Government on the science side, but we have a problem as to whether this issue contravenes Article 8 which states that a person has a right to personal autonomy. The Government say that the use of a person’s genetic material without their express consent to create embryos and their subsequent use and storage would interfere with a person’s rights under Article 8 of the convention. It is arguable as to whether using someone’s cells to make embryo stem cells, which are then destroyed anyway after 14 days, contravenes their human rights, because a bundle of cells, be they human embryo cells—we heard this from the Ministers in Committee—have no human rights anyway. Are we not splitting hairs a little by saying that it would contravene Article 8 if this research went ahead without the express consent of the individual? I suggest that we are being too particular and thoughtful on this issue. We must always keep in our minds, as the noble Lord, Lord Walton, said, that this sort of research could lead to huge relief of suffering for individuals. He gave the example of motor neurone disease, but there are many others. Surely these advantages will outweigh the disadvantages and the problems that we are arguing about.