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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

There is a difficulty with this matter. I have produced from my copious notes the result of a poll that was produced recently in the national press. It asked:"““Should human-animal embryos be allowed?" All sorts of statistics were printed, one example being that 50 per cent. of people said yes to that. It also asked:"““Should IVF proceed without the 'need for a father'?””" Some 40 per cent. of people said yes to that whereas 32 per cent. said no—or possibly the other way round. The poll is extraordinary, but it does not represent public opinion in the sense of social indicators as the result of basic, serious, professional, social science research into public opinion in this country in this area—we have that not. The Government have admitted that no such research has been done, which is why the Joint Committee, on which my hon. Friend and I served, has recommended that the Government should forthwith start doing that research; they should commission that serious research, so that we do not have to rely on what The Sun says its readers think or on what any other organ thinks its readers think.