Clause 24
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Mark Simmonds (Shadow Minister, Health; Boston and Skegness, Conservative)
I join the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon in welcoming you to the Chair, Mr. Hood, and let me say how much I am looking forward to serving under your guidance and chairmanship. I have three quick questions for the Minister on clause 24 stand part that we did not manage to cover in the debate on the amendments.
The first point is about counselling. Under the clause, the donor is informed when a request has been made for information about them. In most circumstances, there will be many years between the donation that leads to the genetic offspring and the genetic offspring asking for information about the donor. It is a minimum of 18 years, but it could be much longer. Clearly, I welcome the stipulations in schedule 4 that relate to counselling for the person requesting the information, but what about counselling for the original donor? Obviously, it should not be compulsory or mandatory, but there may be significant changes of circumstances—the donor’s life may have changed dramatically, they may be in a marriage or another relationship and it could be extremely traumatic to bring such a new piece of information into their life. I wonder why no counselling is offered in the Bill for the original donor.
The second point is about the disparity in ability to request information at different ages. As I understand it, the donor-conceived person is able to request non-identifiable information at 16, but other information is available only at 18. Perhaps the Minister could put on the record the logic behind that particular difference. It may be simply that people are legally allowed to be in sexual relationships at the age of 16, while 18 is the general cut-off point for moving into adulthood.
The third point is about proposed new section 31ZB, which deals with checking whether people in intimate relationships are genetically related. It is about getting the permission of the other party in that intimate relationship. What happens if both parties in that intimate relationship are under the age of 18, and therefore only able to receive non-identifying information, when the point of getting that information is specifically to identify whether the partner in that intimate relationship is related to them?