Clause 3 — Prohibitions in connection with embryos

Part of Orders of the Day – in the House of Commons at 3:15 pm on 22 October 2008.

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Photo of David Burrowes David Burrowes Shadow Minister (Justice) 3:15, 22 October 2008

I am grateful for that intervention. If the hon. Gentleman bears with me, I shall come shortly to the issue of the licence.

The fourth reason for the amendment is that proposed new section 4A(4) bans the implantation of human admixed embryos in an animal. Since the embryos in question are not defined as human admixed under current definitions in the Bill, implantation into an animal could not be banned under clause 4. The embryos would thus fall under animal legislation, potentially allowing a human foetus with an animal placenta to develop in an animal womb up to mid-gestation, without the requirement—this relates to what the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon said—to obtain a research licence from the Home Office. The research project would require a licence only if the research was intended to take the foetus beyond mid-gestation. If that was the intention, a licence would be required.

The difference, as I understand it, between requiring a licence for a research project and requiring one for implantation is an unrelated animal welfare issue—not something that falls within the intention of animal legislation. As the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon knows, animal legislation is designed to ensure that animals are not butchered by incompetent or uncaring technicians or researchers who do not know what they are doing or do not care if animals suffer unnecessarily. In relevant cases, the researchers would need an implantation licence because the animal to be implanted would be classified as a protected animal. That is the crucial issue. In my example, the foetus developing inside would be an unprotected animal until mid-gestation. That is the gap that I am seeking to plug. Hence a licence would not be required for the research project unless the intention was to develop the foetus beyond mid-gestation. That might sound like a far-fetched scenario; some may even say that it is a science-fiction scenario.