Question
asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answers by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 6 February (WA 118-19), 17 April (WA 42-43) and 18 June (WA 9-10) regarding the use of human embryos in basic research, how they will enforce paragraph 11 of the Declaration of Helsinki and paragraphs 8.3 and 10.3 of the International Society for Stem Cell Research guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research.
Answer
The Government have proposed, as part of their review of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, that the law will make it clear that basic research involving human embryos is permissible, subject to controls. Schedule 2 of the Act sets out the activities for which licences may be granted. As specified in paragraph 3 of that schedule, licences for the purposes of a project of research involving human embryos cannot authorise any activity unless it appears to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to be necessary or desirable for one or more of the purposes specified. Further, the law makes it clear that no licence shall be granted unless the authority is satisfied that any proposed use of embryos is necessary for the purposes of the particular research project. In assessing whether any proposed use of embryos is necessary for the purposes of that particular research project, the HFEA will take into account all relevant international conventions.