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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [Lords]

I will not rehearse the scientific arguments; I am not a scientist. I have heard some powerful arguments from people who are, however, and it seems to me that this area of research holds out serious hopes of tackling diseases, if not in the short term then in the longer term. I want to speak tonight because I am infertile and I have multiple sclerosis. I received treatment for my infertility, but it was not possible to cure me. However, the two embryos that were left over were able to be used for research. Following the legislation in 2001, those sorts of embryos have been able to be used for research into things other than fertility—the only thing for which they could originally be used—for example, research into diseases such as my multiple sclerosis. We are talking about making more embryos available for research through the use of hybrids. I know through my experience just how painful hyperstimulation of one's ovaries is, but we have not heard about that issue in this debate. Why are we examining the creation of hybrids? We are doing so because there are insufficient embryos for research, and I shall tell hon. Members one of the reasons why that is. Had there been any chance of my having a child as a result of the embryos that I made, I would have used them for that purpose, and I believe that the same is true for any woman who has been through that kind of treatment. Asking women to go through the process of hyperstimulation of their ovaries to make eggs for other people's research is frankly a step too far, yet we know that it is possible, through embryonic research, to create a model of some of these terrible diseases in a dish. That is what this Bill offers; it does not offer hybrid, would-be people; it offers the possibility of creating cell lines that contain these terrible, debilitating diseases. In the case of motor neurone disease, the disease leads to certain death. As far as I can tell from looking at the King's college work, there is no real option of creating neurons from adult stem cells, so we must grasp this chance. In 1975, people said no to recombinant DNA technology because, ““It is playing God. You are mixing up different genes. That is not the proper thing to do.”” The scientific community said that it would say yes, and in the 33 years since, treatments for haemophilia and diabetes, as well as many biopharmaceutical drugs, have been developed. That has taken 33 years, but it has made a real difference on these chronic illnesses. We have an opportunity tonight to make a real difference, perhaps not in the short term, but in the future, on chronic diseases, particularly on these devastating neurological diseases. It would be a great pity if the House did not grasp that opportunity.