Question
asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 7 June (WA 203-04), how their stated commitment to a ban on reproductive cloning is reflected in the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill, particularly in light of the repeal of the Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001, proposed on page 88 of the draft Bill, and proposal 22 on page 146 of the draft Bill, which indicates their intention to remove the restriction on reproductive cloning in order to encourage an increase in research licence applications; and
Answer
The Government are committed to a ban on human reproductive cloning and the draft Human Tissue and Embryos Bill does not permit human reproductive cloning. Clause 16(2) in the draft Bill allows only ““permitted”” embryos to be placed in a woman. An embryo is a permitted embryo if: it has been created by fertilisation of a permitted egg by a permitted sperm; and no nuclear or mitochondrial DNA of any cell of the embryo has been altered. This would not include an embryo created by cell nuclear replacement. As these provisions supersede the requirements for the Human Cloning Act 2001, it is accordingly revoked by Clause 16(6). The draft Bill introduces a regulation-making power in new Section 3ZA(5) of the amended Act, which, if exercised, will allow an embryo that has had applied to it a process in circumstances prescribed by regulations designed to prevent the transmission of serious mitochondrial disease to be included within the category of ““permitted”” embryos. Regulations to allow this would be subject to affirmative resolution. While retaining the ban on reproductive cloning by specifying only those embryos that can be placed in a woman, the draft Bill removes the prohibition on replacing the nucleus of a cell of an embryo with a nucleus of any person or embryo, or subsequent development of an embryo for research purposes only. Licences for the purposes of a project of research involving human embryos cannot authorise any activity unless it appears to the regulator to be necessary or desirable for one or more of the purposes specified in the Act. In 2005, the department undertook a public consultation on the review of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. Responses were received from stakeholders including members of the scientific community and professional bodies. Among those that supported the removal of the prohibition on ““replacing the cell of an embryo with the nucleus from a cell of any person”” for research purposes only were the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Association of Clinical Embryologists. These groups are not directly involved in cell nuclear replacement research but members represented by those groups could be.