UK Parliament / Open data

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, this is a remarkable amendment to have been proposed in the House of Commons in view of the statement that the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, made in this House in January. I have listened carefully to the noble Lord, Lord Walton of Detchant, and I think that he has possibly overlooked the point that, in relation to the children and adults who lack capacity, the amendment does not require that the research should be for their benefit. It is possibly for the benefit of those suffering from the same or a similar condition. That is what the amendment says, not the terms that the GMC thought were appropriate. I want to concentrate on the use of existing cell lines which we are told were lawfully stored for research purposes immediately before the commencement date, or which are derived from human cells which were lawfully stored for those purposes at that time. They were given for those purposes, so why are they not used for such purposes? The force of the amendment shows that the Government consider that the consent given for research purposes is not adequate to cover research using human admixed embryos. I do not understand how those cell lines could be useful in connection with human admixed embryos. Whatever may happen in the future, I understand that the present position is that human and mixed embryos are used in the process of research because of the scarcity of human eggs. To get over that difficulty admixed human embryos are used, using cattle—cows or some other animal. That has nothing to do with stored cell lines as I understand it, so this is a different situation which should be covered from the consent that was given. It is extremely difficult to say that this is in any way consistent with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is difficult to connect the scientific purpose that has been the foundation of this amendment with the use that is to be made in connection with human admixed embryos. The purpose is to supplement the difficulty arising from the scarcity of these eggs. The Human Tissue Act contains requirements for consent, which are reflected in proposed paragraph 15G(5). However, the ultimate purpose of the amendment is to deal with a case where there is no possibility of consent under these provisions. The ultimate test of this amendment is a case in which there is no consent to allow the person using the material to go beyond the research purposes for which it was originally given. I originally took the view that if it was given for research purposes, then it is being used for research purposes after the commencement of the Act, but the Government’s approach shows that they consider that the consent given for research before the commencement of the Act is not sufficient to cover the research to which they now wish to put this tissue. Therefore, I regard it as extremely doubtful whether this could be regarded as coming within the proper confines of the Human Rights Act and the convention.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
704 c1665-6 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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