Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Committe stage first day. (Clauses Nos. 4, 11, 14 and 23, Schedule No. 2 and any new Clauses or new Schedules relating to the termination of pregnancy by registered medical practitioners). Clause 4 debated and agreed to as amended. Clause 11 debated and agreed to. Schedule 2 debated and agreed to as amended.
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [Lords]
Debate on bills
and
Committee of the Whole House (HC) on Monday, 19 May 2008,
in the House of Commons.
Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
476 c22-131, (corrigendum) 300;476 c22-131 
Session
2007-08
Legislative stage
Committee stage
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (HL). Brought from the Lords. (Explanatory Notes Bill 70-EN published).
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
Bills
House of Commons
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
Bills
House of Commons
Proceeding contributions
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 476 c26 (Link to this contribution)
Order. This is a profound debate on which people hold very strong views, but I hope that it can be c...
Edward Leigh | 476 c22-4 (Link to this contribution)
I apologise, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I shall start again.
Amendment No. 1 addresses probably the most r...
Show all contributions (254)
John Redwood | 476 c24 (Link to this contribution)
My hon. Friend has studied these matters carefully and is making an interesting case. Does he think ...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 476 c22 (Link to this contribution)
With this it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments:
Edward Leigh | 476 c22 (Link to this contribution)
I beg to move amendment No. 1, page 4, leave out line 5.
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 476 c22 (Link to this contribution)
Order. I had not meant to interrupt the hon. Gentleman, but Deputy Leader is a new term.
Edward Leigh | 476 c22 (Link to this contribution)
Mr. Deputy Leader, amendment No. 1—
David Burrowes | 476 c26 (Link to this contribution)
I also attended the Second Reading debate, when reference was made to those clinical trials. This mo...
Edward Leigh | 476 c24 (Link to this contribution)
I do not want to get involved in the politics of the issue. I have already made the point that there...
Edward Leigh | 476 c26 (Link to this contribution)
Of course I am not trying to mislead the House. I genuinely believe that what I am saying is the tru...
Brian Iddon | 476 c26 (Link to this contribution)
I withdraw it.
Brian Iddon | 476 c26 (Link to this contribution)
Will the hon. Gentleman tell the House why he is talking about entities, species and beings? The ste...
Edward Leigh | 476 c25 (Link to this contribution)
The science editor went on to say that mitochondrial DNA is very important. As a medical doctor, the...
Evan Harris | 476 c25 (Link to this contribution)
I am keen to defend The Daily Telegraph: Roger Highfield said that 50 per cent. of a cybrid's mitoch...
Edward Leigh | 476 c24-5 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman is trying to blind us with science, and his science is not even correct. I have c...
Ian Gibson | 476 c24 (Link to this contribution)
Can the hon. Gentleman inform the House of the difference between animal DNA and human DNA—for examp...
Chris Bryant | 476 c27 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman has mentioned false arguments, but the arguments that he is advancing are remarka...
Edward Leigh | 476 c26 (Link to this contribution)
Make no mistake—what we are doing this afternoon is unique. No other country has gone down this aven...
Edward Leigh | 476 c27 (Link to this contribution)
I will give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr. Cash), but then I must make progress.
Edward Leigh | 476 c27 (Link to this contribution)
We should all subscribe to that principle.
It has been stated that research is needed, because it ...
William Cash | 476 c27 (Link to this contribution)
I agree with my hon. Friend, particularly with respect to the available alternative therapies. The N...
Edward Leigh | 476 c27-8 (Link to this contribution)
I want to make some progress; if there is time, I will give way later.
A vote for animal-human rese...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c30-1 (Link to this contribution)
It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton (Sir Gerald Kaufman), who ha...
Gerald Kaufman | 476 c28-30 (Link to this contribution)
There is no doubt whatever that in one regard there is no difference between different sides and dif...
Celia Barlow | 476 c31 (Link to this contribution)
I note with interest the hon. Gentleman's mention of umbilical cord blood. Does he support the call ...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c31 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman makes a fair point. He is probably aware that a research project has been license...
Lembit Opik | 476 c31 (Link to this contribution)
The Motor Neurone Disease Association, of which I am president, would agree with the hon. Gentleman ...
Sarah Teather | 476 c32 (Link to this contribution)
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mark Simmonds | 476 c32 (Link to this contribution)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point, but I do not agree with him. We must ensure t...
David Burrowes | 476 c31-2 (Link to this contribution)
I am grateful for my hon. Friend's support for encouraging umbilical cord blood research, given the ...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c31 (Link to this contribution)
I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention. There is a strong argument for a cord blood bank—indeed...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c34-5 (Link to this contribution)
If the hon. Gentleman will bear with me, I will come to that specific point in a moment. He is right...
John Pugh | 476 c33 (Link to this contribution)
I am sure that hon. Gentleman will be aware of the briefing from the Academy of Medical Sciences, th...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c32-3 (Link to this contribution)
I need to make some progress, but I will be happy to give way in a moment.
I want to explain what a...
Sarah Teather | 476 c37 (Link to this contribution)
I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. He is arguing that we need to keep all avenues of researc...
Ian Gibson | 476 c37 (Link to this contribution)
I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention, but as a hard-nosed scientist, no. People work on the b...
William Cash | 476 c37 (Link to this contribution)
In the light of what the hon. Gentleman said on Second Reading and in the light of what he is saying...
Ian Gibson | 476 c37 (Link to this contribution)
I agree absolutely, but what we are saying here in the rational world of debate is that there are di...
Lembit Opik | 476 c37 (Link to this contribution)
On that very point, Professor Chris Shaw, professor of neurology and neurogenetics at King's college...
Ian Gibson | 476 c37 (Link to this contribution)
I concur with that general view.
Evan Harris | 476 c35 (Link to this contribution)
Will the hon. Gentleman explain what the ethical difference is between 50 per cent. and 51 per cent....
Mark Simmonds | 476 c35 (Link to this contribution)
I think that there is a very big difference between a cell that has a 51 per cent. animal and 49 per...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 476 c35 (Link to this contribution)
Perhaps I should remind hon. Members that we are in Committee and not in the House, so the form of a...
Ian Gibson | 476 c35-6 (Link to this contribution)
Sir Alan—[Interruption.] I know he is a great cricketer in the making.
It is, I think, the desire o...
Ian Gibson | 476 c39-40 (Link to this contribution)
I thank my hon. Friend for that observation. I think the proposed legislation allows for that in cer...
Ian Gibson | 476 c39 (Link to this contribution)
I cannot say exactly how many, but I know that it has turned down a few. [Interruption.] Well, it mi...
David Chaytor | 476 c39 (Link to this contribution)
Does my hon. Friend agree that it is not possible to argue, as some opponents of this proposed legis...
Ian Gibson | 476 c39 (Link to this contribution)
If I am honest—and I am, I think—if there had not been such tight regulations and such difficulties ...
John Pugh | 476 c39 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman mentioned tight regulation by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. W...
Ian Gibson | 476 c38-9 (Link to this contribution)
It is extremely difficult to obtain adult stem cells from the human body, although there are instanc...
David Burrowes | 476 c39 (Link to this contribution)
We could all point to stem cell research avenues, not least in relation to cord blood. We could poin...
Ian Gibson | 476 c38 (Link to this contribution)
In a second. I want to make one point.
On Second Reading, I said that I remembered a time in the '7...
Judy Mallaber | 476 c38 (Link to this contribution)
Will my hon. Friend clarify his exchange with the hon. Member for Brent, East (Sarah Teather)? As a ...
Judy Mallaber | 476 c38 (Link to this contribution)
Will my hon. Friend give way?
Lembit Opik | 476 c40 (Link to this contribution)
On this point, as has been pointed out, Professor Chris Shaw believes that embryonic stem cells are ...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 476 c40 (Link to this contribution)
Does the hon. Gentleman agree with Dr. Peter Hollands, the chief scientific officer of the UK blood ...
John Bercow | 476 c43 (Link to this contribution)
I do not think that my hon. Friend need worry himself unduly that there is a great eugenicist conspi...
Ian Gibson | 476 c41-2 (Link to this contribution)
I am going to finish now, because although I could go on for hours on this matter, I am sure that ev...
William Cash | 476 c42 (Link to this contribution)
It is difficult to follow the hon. Member for Norwich, North (Dr. Gibson), because he presents his c...
Ian Gibson | 476 c41 (Link to this contribution)
I thank my hon. Friend for that. I think that scientists are a craven bunch of conservatives; they d...
Geraldine Smith | 476 c41 (Link to this contribution)
Surely this is not just about what scientists know; it is about what they do not know. Could it not ...
William Cash | 476 c43-4 (Link to this contribution)
They may well be, but I still ask the question, given the vast amounts of money involved. As I said,...
Jacqui Lait | 476 c44 (Link to this contribution)
Can my hon. Friend help me, because I have a slight difficulty with his concept that the expense of ...
William Cash | 476 c44 (Link to this contribution)
I could not agree more that there is a serious problem for those who want to have children, and I wo...
William Cash | 476 c45-6 (Link to this contribution)
My hon. Friend appears quite certain of that. Fourteen days is the figure that is always given, but ...
David Drew | 476 c46-7 (Link to this contribution)
I rise with some trepidation, given the arguments we have heard from eminent scientists and ethicist...
William Cash | 476 c44-5 (Link to this contribution)
I perfectly understand that argument. I am not suggesting that we should stop all research. It is ju...
Robert Key | 476 c45 (Link to this contribution)
Oh, please!
William Cash | 476 c45 (Link to this contribution)
My hon. Friend says, ““Oh, please!”” as though he thinks that what I am suggesting is completely abs...
Lord Vaizey of Didcot | 476 c58 (Link to this contribution)
For the benefit of those of us who are close to supporting what is in the Bill, will the right hon. ...
Robert Key | 476 c58 (Link to this contribution)
I would like to help the right hon. Lady, as I was a member of the Joint Committee. The real problem...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c58 (Link to this contribution)
I am eternally grateful that the whole Government and Ministers in the Department of Health were abl...
Evan Harris | 476 c55-6 (Link to this contribution)
That is right. The hon. Gentleman puts it very well. The scientific organisations that I have mentio...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c56 (Link to this contribution)
A great deal of this subject has already been covered in the debate, but I want to respond briefly t...
William Cash | 476 c56 (Link to this contribution)
Who will decide what is necessary?
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c56-8 (Link to this contribution)
The statutory purposes are clearly laid out in the Bill, building on the provisions in the 1990 Act....
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c58 (Link to this contribution)
What I am saying is that we are trying to be clear about what should be regulated and when it falls ...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c58 (Link to this contribution)
Does the Minister accept that there is a difference between an embryonic cell that is a 50:50 hybrid...
David Burrowes | 476 c53 (Link to this contribution)
I appreciate that progress can be made only on the basis of peer-reviewed evidence, but is it not al...
Evan Harris | 476 c53-4 (Link to this contribution)
It is certainly true that the only blastocysts created from cybrid research have been in China. The ...
Lembit Opik | 476 c52 (Link to this contribution)
How did my hon. Friend guess? People do not assume that the cure for degenerative diseases will nece...
Evan Harris | 476 c52-3 (Link to this contribution)
Indeed. I agree and pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his advocacy of that cause.
The outrageous al...
Lembit Opik | 476 c52 (Link to this contribution)
Will my hon. Friend give way?
Evan Harris | 476 c52 (Link to this contribution)
Yes, if it is to do with motor neurone disease.
Evan Harris | 476 c52 (Link to this contribution)
I would prefer not to go into that because I am sure that we will revert to it and not sure whether ...
John Bercow | 476 c55 (Link to this contribution)
As the hon. Gentleman has said, the prohibition on implantation is explicit and the Bill is unmistak...
Evan Harris | 476 c54-5 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman can be absolutely reassured that there is no prospect of any hybrid embryo being ...
Stewart Hosie | 476 c54 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman has spoken about his second category—those who are quite happy with what one migh...
Evan Harris | 476 c49-50 (Link to this contribution)
I hope that I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that I have been watching the Government like a hawk o...
Sarah Teather | 476 c50 (Link to this contribution)
My hon. Friend says that none of the research will be possible without a licence, but he will also b...
Evan Harris | 476 c50 (Link to this contribution)
I do not think that that is right, and I wanted to return to the point made by my hon. Friend the Me...
David Burrowes | 476 c50 (Link to this contribution)
Does the hon. Gentleman not accept that when considering keeping all avenues open, there was a prope...
Evan Harris | 476 c50-1 (Link to this contribution)
I do not think that that is right. I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman is saying that a human-a...
John Pugh | 476 c51 (Link to this contribution)
Does my hon. Friend not accept that the hamster test does not give a rationale for extending the lif...
Andy Slaughter | 476 c51 (Link to this contribution)
If the hon. Gentleman is right about the 1990 Act and true hybrids, which I think he is, where does ...
Evan Harris | 476 c51 (Link to this contribution)
Absolutely. As I said, there has to be a scientific justification. We could not justify creating a t...
William Cash | 476 c52 (Link to this contribution)
Is the hon. Gentleman satisfied about the authority's composition? Does he believe that it reflects ...
Anne Begg | 476 c47 (Link to this contribution)
One of the main cures that being developed is gene replacement therapy, which is particularly releva...
David Drew | 476 c47 (Link to this contribution)
If we had the means to do so, the answer is of course, but I am asking how that is done. I listened ...
Lembit Opik | 476 c47-8 (Link to this contribution)
Motor neurone disease is an interesting example, because a proportion of people who develop the dise...
David Drew | 476 c47 (Link to this contribution)
My hon. Friend makes a valuable point, and it is to do with the point about repair as against enhanc...
Gordon Prentice | 476 c47 (Link to this contribution)
But say that 7 per cent. of people who develop motor neurone disease have a genetic predisposition t...
Evan Harris | 476 c49 (Link to this contribution)
I hope that I have reassured the hon. Member for Stroud, and I hope that the Minister will seek to r...
Evan Harris | 476 c48-9 (Link to this contribution)
This excellent debate shows the benefit of a free vote on all Benches. There is certainly a free vot...
David Drew | 476 c48 (Link to this contribution)
I agree, but, as the hon. Gentleman has said, how can one know that such research will be limited to...
David Drew | 476 c49 (Link to this contribution)
Part of my confusion is that even at this late stage the Government have chosen to table a further a...
Fiona Mactaggart | 476 c67-8 (Link to this contribution)
I will not rehearse the scientific arguments; I am not a scientist. I have heard some powerful argum...
Lord Cormack | 476 c66-7 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Member for Blackpool, South (Mr. Marsden) said he did not want to canonise. I want neither ...
Evan Harris | 476 c80 (Link to this contribution)
I beg to move amendment No. 31, page 8, line 21, leave out subsection (1) and insert—
Edward Leigh | 476 c68 (Link to this contribution)
It is a pleasure briefly to sum up an excellent and serious debate, in which, for once, we have been...
David Burrowes | 476 c82 (Link to this contribution)
On a point of order, Mr. Hood. I am concerned as to whether amendment No. 31 is within the remit of ...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 476 c80 (Link to this contribution)
With this it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments:
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 476 c82 (Link to this contribution)
I cannot accept the hon. Gentleman's point of order, as the amendment would not have been on the ame...
Gordon Marsden | 476 c66 (Link to this contribution)
I am sorry, but I cannot give way, as that would not be fair to other Members who wish to speak.
We...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c87 (Link to this contribution)
It is utterly outrageous for the hon. Gentleman to suggest that I am not taking the Bill seriously, ...
Evan Harris | 476 c87 (Link to this contribution)
I am very worried now, because that is not the question. The question relates not to research but to...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c87 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman is persistent. [Interruption.] His colleagues have confirmed that, although they ...
Evan Harris | 476 c87 (Link to this contribution)
I am astonished. The views of the MRC do not matter, because this is a legal question. I have receiv...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c88 (Link to this contribution)
indicated dissent.
Evan Harris | 476 c88 (Link to this contribution)
The record will show that I said that the Minister is not taking this issue seriously, so she is bei...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c87 (Link to this contribution)
The Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and a large number of scientists support the Govern...
Evan Harris | 476 c84-7 (Link to this contribution)
It is most likely that the procedure will be possible only in a handful of cases, so we are not talk...
Ian Gibson | 476 c84 (Link to this contribution)
Is it true, though, that many ailments and afflictions are multi-factorial, and that in those cases ...
Evan Harris | 476 c82-4 (Link to this contribution)
Amendment No. 31 is important, but I take this opportunity to speak to the other group of amendments...
John Bercow | 476 c63 (Link to this contribution)
Will my hon. Friend give way again?
David Burrowes | 476 c63 (Link to this contribution)
I do not think we should go over old ground and return to debates about whether or not we support em...
Lynne Jones | 476 c63 (Link to this contribution)
Does the hon. Gentleman support the measures in the 1990 Act?
David Burrowes | 476 c63 (Link to this contribution)
As my hon. Friend will appreciate, as a Conservative I am certainly not in favour of monopolies. I p...
John Bercow | 476 c63 (Link to this contribution)
My hon. Friend has made it very clear that he doubts the efficacy of admixed embryo research. What i...
David Burrowes | 476 c59-62 (Link to this contribution)
I begin by making a point that I would have liked to raise by intervening on the Minister earlier. I...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c59 (Link to this contribution)
No, I will not. Other Members want to speak and I am trying to make some progress. I have been absol...
Lembit Opik | 476 c62 (Link to this contribution)
There is room for both, surely. Professor Chris Shaw is not guaranteeing that this is the right way ...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c58 (Link to this contribution)
Will the Minister give way?
Gordon Marsden | 476 c65-6 (Link to this contribution)
Like many—perhaps most—Members, I come to the debate having read as much as possible of the various ...
David Burrowes | 476 c64-5 (Link to this contribution)
I do not accept that. Indeed, I am keen for us to open up opportunities for stem-cell research, whic...
Andy Slaughter | 476 c64 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman may be aware of the comments of the Parkinson's Disease Society, which has said:"...
David Burrowes | 476 c64 (Link to this contribution)
I disagree. In fact, I think it unfair to look at adult stem-cell research since the 1950s. In recen...
John Bercow | 476 c64 (Link to this contribution)
I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend, whose natural sense of fair play gets the better of him. ...
John Bercow | 476 c64 (Link to this contribution)
Just once more?
John Bercow | 476 c64 (Link to this contribution)
Will my hon. Friend give way?
David Burrowes | 476 c63 (Link to this contribution)
No. I want to continue my speech.
There is concern about important principles such as the dignity o...
Mark Todd | 476 c100 (Link to this contribution)
I must say that I have some anxiety about existing practice sanctioning a potential injury to a chil...
David Burrowes | 476 c99 (Link to this contribution)
My response to that is similar to my response to the hon. Gentleman's previous intervention: those c...
Mark Todd | 476 c99-100 (Link to this contribution)
I have a brief speech to make on a narrow point of concern. What we are sanctioning in this debate i...
Kevin Barron | 476 c98 (Link to this contribution)
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
David Burrowes | 476 c98 (Link to this contribution)
I want to extend my argument.
The pressure is there. It is not beyond the realms of reason that the...
Evan Harris | 476 c99 (Link to this contribution)
What is the difference between a saviour sibling being unable to fulfil such hopes, despite tissue t...
David Burrowes | 476 c98 (Link to this contribution)
It is perhaps regrettable that we in this House cannot consider the Human Tissue Act 2004 in the con...
Kevin Barron | 476 c98 (Link to this contribution)
I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman has ever read the Hansard report of the debate on the legis...
David Burrowes | 476 c98 (Link to this contribution)
As it is a new hon. Member intervening, I will.
Evan Harris | 476 c104 (Link to this contribution)
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mark Simmonds | 476 c104 (Link to this contribution)
Let me make a little progress; I will give way to the hon. Gentleman in a few moments.
Will the Min...
Evan Harris | 476 c104 (Link to this contribution)
I am trying to be helpful, so I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for taking my intervention. He sai...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c100-2 (Link to this contribution)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for South Derbyshire (Mr. Todd), who made a thoughtful an...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c102 (Link to this contribution)
I understand the hon. Gentleman's point. The legal advice that I have received on this is contradict...
Evan Harris | 476 c102 (Link to this contribution)
Is the hon. Gentleman convinced that substituting the words ““severely impairs their quality of life...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c103 (Link to this contribution)
I take the hon. Gentleman's point, but that is not my understanding of the situation. I am told that...
Evan Harris | 476 c102 (Link to this contribution)
Actually, I would like to use the liver as an example of something that might be caught by the hon. ...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c103 (Link to this contribution)
I understand my hon. Friend's point, but I would raise with him in response the issue of what would ...
Greg Clark | 476 c103 (Link to this contribution)
Does the key distinction relate not to the difference between regenerative and other tissue, but to ...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c107 (Link to this contribution)
I entirely disagree with that proposition. Regardless of whether the principle of saviour siblings i...
Stewart Hosie | 476 c107 (Link to this contribution)
Will the Minister give way?
Dominic Grieve | 476 c106-7 (Link to this contribution)
I have been listening carefully to the Minister's arguments. I also listened carefully to the argume...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c106 (Link to this contribution)
Let me try to explain the Government's thinking on clause 11 and schedule 2, and on the issues that ...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c105-6 (Link to this contribution)
I do not think that that is right, because we would get into the difficult issue, which was raised e...
John Bercow | 476 c105 (Link to this contribution)
I hope that my hon. Friend will forgive me if I press the rewind button and ask him briefly to rever...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c104-5 (Link to this contribution)
That is where we disagree. I think that my amendments are better because they are, in my view, tight...
Tom Levitt | 476 c108 (Link to this contribution)
My right hon. Friend rightly identifies the motivation of the parents involved. I hope to catch the ...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c108 (Link to this contribution)
I touched on that point. I absolutely acknowledge that in these extremely difficult cases very hard ...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c108 (Link to this contribution)
I shall give way to my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Tom Levitt) and then to the hon. and le...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c108 (Link to this contribution)
May I just finish the point before giving way?
I know that I would want to move heaven and earth if...
Stewart Hosie | 476 c107-8 (Link to this contribution)
I have been listening carefully, and I have a genuinely open mind on this bit of the Bill, but many ...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c107 (Link to this contribution)
I shall give way first to the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Stewart Hosie), as I promised to do so.
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c107 (Link to this contribution)
As many points have been raised, I would like to make a little progress before taking an interventio...
George Howarth | 476 c90 (Link to this contribution)
I understand my hon. Friend's point. I said that there would be a wide spectrum of circumstances and...
Stephen Pound | 476 c90 (Link to this contribution)
I agree that my right hon. Friend is making a sober and considered case. However, I ask him to consi...
George Howarth | 476 c89-90 (Link to this contribution)
I understand the hon. Gentleman's point, which is important. However, I do not know where the balanc...
Gary Streeter | 476 c89 (Link to this contribution)
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman, who is making a thoughtful speech.
Does he not give any ...
George Howarth | 476 c90 (Link to this contribution)
My hon. Friend is correct. However, parents make all sorts of decisions about their babies and child...
Mark Todd | 476 c90 (Link to this contribution)
My right hon. Friend referred to the positive feelings cited by siblings who have donated. Surely th...
George Howarth | 476 c88-9 (Link to this contribution)
Anybody listening to the debate on saviour siblings, both in Committee today and in the wider media—...
George Howarth | 476 c91 (Link to this contribution)
Finally, I give way to my hon. Friend.
George Howarth | 476 c91 (Link to this contribution)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Perhaps I should just take interventions; the more I take, the stro...
Tom Levitt | 476 c91 (Link to this contribution)
I agree with everything that my right hon. Friend has said. The answer to my hon. Friend the Member ...
George Howarth | 476 c92 (Link to this contribution)
Mr. Hood, I shall refrain from responding to my hon. Friend's sedentary interventions.
We should en...
George Howarth | 476 c90 (Link to this contribution)
I shall give way to the hon. Member for Buckingham (John Bercow) and then to my hon. Friend the Memb...
John Bercow | 476 c90 (Link to this contribution)
I am extremely grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. The fact that the savour sibling...
George Howarth | 476 c90 (Link to this contribution)
I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who answered my hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshir...
Patrick Hall | 476 c94 (Link to this contribution)
Surely the hon. Gentleman acknowledges that bone marrow biopsy, with one child donating to another, ...
David Burrowes | 476 c94 (Link to this contribution)
Many hon. Members would be satisfied if the saviour sibling provided the cord blood. Indeed, the Joi...
David Howarth | 476 c94 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman mentioned the moral principle that people should not be merely means rather than ...
Desmond Turner | 476 c94 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman is rightly concerned about moral principle. If amendment No. 4 is passed, a few—f...
David Burrowes | 476 c93-4 (Link to this contribution)
It is important for Parliament to have legislation that deals with the citizens of this country and ...
Brian Iddon | 476 c93 (Link to this contribution)
Would the hon. Gentleman agree with many other Members that it is better to regulate saviour sibling...
David Burrowes | 476 c92 (Link to this contribution)
Before moving on to saviour siblings, I would like to deal with the amendments in the name of the ho...
Evan Harris | 476 c92 (Link to this contribution)
I would like to draw the hon. Gentleman's attention to proposed new paragraph 1ZA(2) in schedule 2(2...
Evan Harris | 476 c98 (Link to this contribution)
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
David Burrowes | 476 c96-7 (Link to this contribution)
That raises the question of whether we should extend the use of saviour siblings not only to life-th...
Brian Iddon | 476 c96 (Link to this contribution)
The regulator has so far allowed such treatment for only aplastic anaemia, Diamond-Blackfan anaemia ...
David Burrowes | 476 c97-8 (Link to this contribution)
That is a helpful intervention, because the distinction must be borne in mind. With saviour siblings...
Evan Harris | 476 c97 (Link to this contribution)
There is a flaw in the hon. Gentleman's argument. What if there was a fortuitously matched sibling w...
Evan Harris | 476 c95 (Link to this contribution)
Surely it is up to the woman. There is informed consent in those procedures. She may say that she wa...
David Burrowes | 476 c95-6 (Link to this contribution)
I made a point about the practical implications for women. I do not want to deny them a choice, but ...
David Burrowes | 476 c96 (Link to this contribution)
If I may continue, perhaps I can give way shortly.
Since that time, the Government have amended the...
David Burrowes | 476 c94-5 (Link to this contribution)
Yes, but there is the important issue of consent. The Anthony Nolan Trust properly recognises inform...
Dominic Grieve | 476 c113-4 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman makes a perfectly valid point—one could indeed advance that argument. On the whol...
Robert Key | 476 c114 (Link to this contribution)
My hon. and learned Friend is making a characteristically erudite and clever speech, but he disappoi...
Patrick Hall | 476 c113 (Link to this contribution)
Is the hon. and learned Gentleman not treading into the area of saying that IVF is design? The tests...
Dominic Grieve | 476 c115 (Link to this contribution)
If there was an attempt to choose me from a catalogue, it was unsuccessful, because the nature of hu...
Dominic Grieve | 476 c115 (Link to this contribution)
I have no idea what was in my parents' minds at the time, although I can speculate, but I am sure th...
Lord Cormack | 476 c115 (Link to this contribution)
Is it not clear that my hon. and learned Friend was not chosen from a catalogue?
Dominic Grieve | 476 c114-5 (Link to this contribution)
I have to say that I disagree with my hon. Friend. It is a selection of a design for a purpose. More...
George Howarth | 476 c115 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. and learned Gentleman's argument is predicated on the assumption that a child born in such ...
Peter Bone | 476 c114 (Link to this contribution)
That is design.
Robert Key | 476 c114 (Link to this contribution)
It is not. It is not manipulating the genetics of the child in any shape or form.
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c108 (Link to this contribution)
I know, and I am sure that every Member in the House this evening and those listening to our proceed...
Geoffrey Cox | 476 c109 (Link to this contribution)
Is not the difference between the normal situation—one calls it normal because we are dealing inhere...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c110-2 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman has intervened a lot and he has also spoken. If I could make some progress in ans...
Dominic Grieve | 476 c112-3 (Link to this contribution)
I had not intended to intervene in the debate, but the comments made by the Minister and the right h...
George Howarth | 476 c113 (Link to this contribution)
The example I gave from schedule 2—I think, with some intellectual credibility—demonstrates that if ...
Dominic Grieve | 476 c113 (Link to this contribution)
I listened carefully to the right hon. Gentleman, but I have to disagree with him. I accept that he ...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c109 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. and learned Gentleman picks unfortunate phrases in articulating his point this evening. The...
George Howarth | 476 c109 (Link to this contribution)
A few moments ago, the hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve) made the allegation tha...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c109-10 (Link to this contribution)
My right hon. Friend makes a fair point. What is at issue is whether hon. Members agree in principle...
David Burrowes | 476 c110 (Link to this contribution)
Will the Minister give way?
Tom Levitt | 476 c115-6 (Link to this contribution)
I rise as a biologist, a rationalist and a supporter of the Bill. I am not attracted by any of the a...
Judy Mallaber | 476 c117 (Link to this contribution)
Did my hon. Friend hear his constituent speaking on the news at lunch time? Anyone else in the Commi...
Tom Levitt | 476 c117 (Link to this contribution)
My hon. Friend is right. I knew that the interview was taking place, although I did not hear it. How...
Evan Harris | 476 c117-9 (Link to this contribution)
This excellent debate has gone far and wide, well beyond the issue of saviour siblings. In fact, I a...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c119 (Link to this contribution)
The hon. Gentleman will recall that the Minister confirmed that my interpretation was correct and hi...
David Burrowes | 476 c116 (Link to this contribution)
I am grateful, particularly for the hon. Gentleman's reference to cord blood. It is the 20th anniver...
Tom Levitt | 476 c116 (Link to this contribution)
I am sure that there is a role for cord blood banks. In this particular case, however, David's is on...
Patrick Hall | 476 c116-7 (Link to this contribution)
My hon. Friend was present when the hon. and learned Member for Torridge and West Devon (Mr. Cox) qu...
Tom Levitt | 476 c117 (Link to this contribution)
My hon. Friend anticipates what I was just about to say about David's parents. They are both doctors...
Evan Harris | 476 c119-20 (Link to this contribution)
I question whether the definition is tighter, but I do not believe that it should be because the dec...
Evan Harris | 476 c51 (Link to this contribution)
I shall come to that point. I would not say, however, it is just the view of those on the Conservati...
Edward Leigh | 476 c27 (Link to this contribution)
Nobody on my side of the argument has any problem with successful research, but the creation of an e...
Fiona Mactaggart | 476 c44 (Link to this contribution)
The people whom the hon. Gentleman quotes provide IVF treatment to infertile women. They are not doi...
Ian Gibson | 476 c40 (Link to this contribution)
No, I do not absolutely agree, because every scientist has their bailiwick; they have their favourit...
Baroness Primarolo | 476 c58 (Link to this contribution)
I was not the appropriate Minister at the time, but I shall attempt to summarise the position. I thi...
David Burrowes | 476 c105 (Link to this contribution)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing out the complications in dealing with the licensing auth...
Mark Simmonds | 476 c105 (Link to this contribution)
I am grateful for that intervention. I am pressing the Minister on the apparent confusion between th...
Stephen Pound | 476 c91 (Link to this contribution)
It'll never stand up in court.
David Burrowes | 476 c94 (Link to this contribution)
My reaction to that moral imperative, which has existed for several years, is to challenge the Gover...
David Burrowes | 476 c92-3 (Link to this contribution)
I am grateful for that intervention because it is the issue of definition that concerns me. Amendmen...
Patrick Hall | 476 c100 (Link to this contribution)
Does not bone marrow biopsy already take place? The point has been made that that is not with the in...
Evan Harris | 476 c88 (Link to this contribution)
Apparently not, which I find amazing. The Minister will find that the issue comes back on Report, wh...
Robert Key | 476 c45 (Link to this contribution)
Yes indeed; I am delighted to do so. I am grateful to my hon. Friend, whose argument I find very int...
Ian Gibson | 476 c41 (Link to this contribution)
I agree that the methodology of doing science is to have different laboratories in different countri...
David Burrowes | 476 c63 (Link to this contribution)
I hear what the hon. Gentleman says, but I believe we should support the research that has already t...
John Bercow | 476 c90 (Link to this contribution)
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Notes
Daily part printing error - In col. 70, Division no. 191, delete Jim Dobbin from the Noes.
Subjects
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Timestamp
2024-02-08 18:06:05 +0000
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