Question
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 19 June (WA 39-40), to what extent the proposed repeal of the Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001 is a response to the Department of Health's public consultation submitted by the Nominal Licensee for Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority research licence R0152.
Answer
The Government are committed to a ban on reproductive cloning and have made this position clear on a number of occasions. Nothing in the draft Human Tissue and Embryos Bill is intended to permit human reproductive cloning. Provisions in the draft Bill do, however, supersede and therefore repeal the Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001. Clause 16(5) introduces new Section 3ZA into the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, and defines which eggs and embryos can be placed in a woman. Only permitted eggs and embryos, as defined in the Bill, can be placed in a woman. New Section 3ZA(5) allows for regulations to include, in the category of permitted eggs and/or embryos, those which have had applied to them in prescribed circumstances a prescribed process designed to prevent the transmission of serious mitochondrial disease. Any such regulations would be subject to affirmative resolution in both Houses. The draft Bill follows the Government's extensive review of the law on assisted reproduction and embryo research, which was, in part, informed by the recommendations of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee's inquiry into human reproductive technologies and the law. The Government agreed with the Committee's recommendation that research undertaken on embryos using the cell nuclear replacement technique for the purpose of studying mitochondrial diseases should be permissible in law, and undertook further consultation on this point. The regulation making power in proposed new Section 3ZA(5) is intended to provide a mechanism, should research lead to a safe and reliable method to prevent the avoidance of serious mitochondria) disease, for its use in assisted conception treatment,. subject to the agreement of Parliament through the affirmative resolution procedure. "Source: Human Reproductive Technologies and the Law, HC 7-I, Fifth Report of Session 2004-05."