Clause 2
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Dawn Primarolo (Minister of State (Public Health), Department of Health; Bristol South, Labour)
The clause specifically deals only with nuclear DNA, and it was required only to ensure that the new definition in section 2 of the 1990 Act actually clarified the term “nuclear” to include the pronucleus of an embryo. That was specifically what we were trying to do here. We did not go on to define “mitochondrial” for the same reason that I gave the hon. Gentleman with regard to the definition of fertilisation in terms of where it was anchored in 1990. There is an accepted standard biological term in the case of “fertilisation”, as there also is in the case of “mitochondrial” and therefore it was considered not to be necessary.