Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the Government for tabling this amendment. I supported the amendment tabled by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, in Committee and I support this government amendment. I have some sympathy with the amendment tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Howe. We discussed this in Committee and there is an issue to be tackled, as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, said, at the other end of the spectrum. To confuse the matter further, all the evidence from animal studies suggests that for tetraploid complementation, mentioned by my noble friend Lord Walton of Detchant, to happen the two species have to be very close. For example, tetraploid complementation will work in sheep and goat embryonic cells, but not in those of mice or rats. For it to work in humans, therefore, it will have to be a closely related species such as a chimpanzee. The transfer of an embryo into an animal will require a Home Office licence and that will not be permitted. If such an entity were created at some point, not too far along in the development of the embryo, it would grow faster than the embryonic tissues, so it is important to know at what point we are talking about. If, for example, it was in a human, I believe—I might be wrong—that could occur at what we call gastrulation. I think the Minister understands what I mean. In humans it would be about 14 days when organs are beginning to be defined. However, for the purposes of this Bill and the research, embryos will not be allowed to be experimented on beyond 14 days and for the purposes of obtaining stem cells, we are talking about four to six days. The amendment tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Howe, has some issues to be discussed but they may not be directly applicable to this Bill. The fact that the Government in the Commons retained a regulation-making power in new Section 4A(10) which allows existing categories to be amended, may mean that, in future, if necessary, we could discuss this again.