Public consultation on fertility law shake up

Tuesday, 16 August 2005 12:00 AM

Laws over fertility treatment are set for a radical shake up after the government today announced a public consultation on the issue.

Issues for debate will include screening embryos for genes that cause diseases, and the creation of so-called 'designer babies' to help brothers or sisters with serious illnesses.

Launching the consultation, public health minister Caroline Flint said the UK had "led the way" in producing the latest reproductive technology.

But she acknowledged that the issues were complex and there were "many different and strongly held views" on the new technology.

And this brave new science does raise ethical questions - for example over whether an embryo is a human being.

"The UK has led the way in developing the latest reproductive technologies and our system of regulation is admired across the world," Ms Flint said.

She said the original Human Fertility and Embryology act of 1990 was a "landmark piece of legislation" but it needed updating to take into account the latest technological developments.

A wide range of questions arises from the new technology, such as whether a child needs someone to act as a father after a woman has IVF treatment.

The future of Britain's fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), will also be discussed.

Today's announcement follows the launching of public consultation on embryo scanning by the HFEA last week, when ethics campaigners reacted with concern to suggestion that embryos carrying faulty genes could be destroyed.

Josephine Quintavalle, director of pressure group Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE), said destroying embryos that may carry genetic disorders was "eugenic in nature".

The only "acceptable solution", she said, was to find cures for diseases such as breast cancer "not to kill the patients carrying them at the embryo or foetal stage".

But campaign group Genewatch UK welcomed the consultation as long as there were safeguards to accompany any extension of genetic scanning.

The consultation announced today follows a government commitment in January 2004 to review fertility law. Members of the public as well as medical professionals will have up to November 25th to put forward their views.

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