Clause 3
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [Lords]
11:45 am
Dawn Primarolo (Minister of State (Public Health), Department of Health; Bristol South, Labour)
At this stage I am referring just to the couple. I am coming on to the regulation-making power, what it can do, how we would proceed, the sort of questions that may be raised, and why it is not currently possible to put that into the Bill because of the process of the research.
The regulation-making power in the clause is to make secondary legislation, and it is about helping couples to conceive a child without a serious medical condition. It is not about reproductive cloning on which the Government are absolutely clear and committed to a ban. The Bill makes crystal clear the definitions of what is a permitted embryo and therefore what can be placed into a woman.
To date, research is looking at transferring genetic material from a recently fertilised egg from the couple seeking treatment into a donor egg with the genetic material removed. That does not involve somatic cell material. It is not anticipated that it would. The commitment to the ban on reproductive cloning and oversight of the technique as a whole would be ensured by setting out the specific process in regulations, and those regulations would be subject to the affirmative procedure.