Expert calls for abolition of fertility watchdog

Friday, 10 December 2004 12:00 AM

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority should be scrapped, a leading fertility expert has claimed.

Lord Robert Winston, professor of fertility at Imperial College and member of the Lords Science and Technology Committee has labelled the HFEA "incompetent" and "poorly organised" and has called for it to be abolished.

Lord Winston said the HFEA was "not giving out proper public information" and should be replaced with a body that is less bureaucratic and more focused on research.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the documentary presenter admitted that scrapping the HFEA "may be extreme", but added: "Now is the time for Parliament to revise what is happening.

"We boast of being liberal and we boast that this is a model for other countries to follow, but the fact is no other country in Europe, having looked at the British system, has adopted it.

"You have to ask the question why? And I think it's because basically it's not seen to be a very good system."

He said he had decided to speak out after the authorities "shocking mismanagement" of recent issues and suggested that its role could be taken by the proposed new Human Tissue Authority.

The HFEA has been at the centre of a number of high profile disputes recently - including whether parents should be able to select the sex of their child or create a child who is a genetic match to an existing child for medial reasons.

Chairman of the HFEA Suzi Leather defended the authority's work and said it still had an important role to play. She told the same programme that regulation had given the public confidence in the infertility treatment sector, and added "If we were going to move to an alternative, what is that going to be?"

Pointing to yesterday's criticism of the GMC by the Shipman Inquiry, Ms Leather said that self-regulation was a "deeply flawed model".

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