Clause 3 - ''Appropriate consent'': adults
Human Tissue Bill
11:15 am
Mr Harry Cohen (Leyton and Wanstead, Labour)
I appreciate the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire tabling the amendment. It is right to seek clarification on how people with mental incapacity will be treated under this Bill. I raised that point on Second Reading, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Mr. Wareing).
Clause 3 is about appropriate consent for adults and we have just dealt with the clause on appropriate consent for children. However, people with mental incapacity are another issue. Children are clearly vulnerable in many ways and of special interest. In my opinion, people with mental incapacity are similarly vulnerable and need special arrangements.
Other organisations have also asked for clarification. For example, the Royal College of Nursing asked for clarification on procedures for those with learning difficulties or incapacities. The assumption seems to be that people with mental illness
and mental incapacity need to be treated in the same way as every other adult. That may not be appropriate. Whereas many would want to be treated equally and to have the same rules apply to them as to other adults, there is a specific difference. Their judgment may be easily or overly influenced and they may not make the best decision in terms of their own interest. They may not even be fully capable of making such a decision. That needs to be taken into account.
I have raised the issue of criminal brains and I asked questions about that on Second Reading. I am told that there is a market for such brains, because a criminal gene is being looked for. There could also be a search for a mentally ill persons' gene; in future, there could be a demand for the body parts, particularly the brain, of someone with a specific mental illness. That needs to be considered. I ask the Minister for clarification because of that particular vulnerability.