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Home > Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill - House of Lords to vote on amendments

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill - House of Lords to vote on amendments

Published: December 21st, 2007

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Lords to vote on Embryo Bill

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill will reach Report stage in the House of Lords on Tuesday 15th and Monday 21st January 2008. Report is the penultimate stage of the Bill in the Lords, after which is the Third Reading. Then the Bill is passed to the House of Commons, which is expected to take place in February/March 2008.


The Report stage is when the Lords are likely to vote on key areas of the Bill, including:

  • The creation of animal-human hybrid embryos

  • Tissue typing to create ‘saviour siblings’

  • The ‘need for a father’ consideration in IVF treatment

  • Artificial gametes and amendments to the Bill tabled by Lord Patel



It is therefore crucial that in the coming weeks we contact the Lords to express concerns about the issues raised in the Bill. Please write to Peers, expressing your concerns. It is imperative to write to Peers who will be sympathetic and to those who may be undecided, outlining some or all of the issues above. The most important thing is to strongly urge them to make a particular effort to attend Parliament on the 15th and 21st January, in order to vote on these important issues.



To help you write to Peers, we have provided information below on each of the areas listed. However, when writing to Peers, please personalise your letter and write about the issue or issues that are important to you. We have also provided information below on how to address Peers and by using the link below you will find a list of suggested peers to write to and their email addresses:



List of Peers to write to about animal-human hybrid embryos and artificial gametes

http://www.ccfon. org/docs/List_of_Peers_hybrids.xls


List of Peers to write to about saviour siblings and need for a father

http://www.ccfon.org/docs/List_of_Peers_saviour_siblings_fathers.xls



More In-depth Information on the Issues

Animal-human hybrid embryos (or ‘interspecies embryos’)

The creation of animal-human hybrid embryos would further violate the sanctity of the human embryo and blur the distinctions of what it means to be human.

The Bill as it stands will:

Legalise the creation of animal-human hybrid embryos for research purposes. This would include creating 'true hybrids', i.e. fertilising a human egg using animal sperm, or an animal egg using human sperm. This is clearly unethical and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be human, removing the special status and dignity of the human embryo. If the Bill is passed in its current form it will liberalise the law regarding the human embryo, opening the door to push the boundaries further, making it difficult to refuse further liberalisation of the law regarding experimentation on human and interspecies embryos in the future.

Not only is the creation of hybrid embryos unethical, it is also unnecessary. Human embryonic stem cell research has failed to produce any treatments or cures in the last 17 years, and it is likely that hybrid embryos will be equally as unsuccessful.

We support:

We support an amendment to the Bill placing a total prohibition on the creation of animal-human hybrids.

For more information on hybrid embryos, and why we oppose their creation, see the LCF response to the Draft Bill (in particular see page 6, paragraph 8):



http://www.lawcf.org/CMS/uploads/735/documents/Response%20to%20draft%20Human%20 Tissue%20and%20Embryo%20Bill%20%20%20%2015th%20June%202007.pdf



Saviour siblings

The law already permits tissue typing for the purposes of creating ‘saviour siblings’ i.e. selecting embryos so that the child born will be able to provide a healthy tissue match for his or her sick sibling. This practice is concerning not only because it entails the destruction of healthy embryos that don’t match the sibling, but there are concerns the resulting child will be seen as a resource and the creation of ‘spare part children’.

The Bill as it stands will:

Liberalise the law - ‘saviour siblings’ can already be created to treat an existing child who has a 'life threatening' disease. The new Bill extends this to a child with a 'serious' illness, which is not defined in the Bill and could therefore be interpreted as including any number of conditions.

The Bill also talks about the resulting child being used for umbilical cord blood stem cells, bone marrow or “other tissue”. This too is concerning as it seems to suggest that children could be created for the purpose of providing an organ transplant for their sibling. The danger is that these children will be seen a commodity, and there are obvious difficulties about balancing the rights of the child with the medical needs of the child’s sibling.

We support:



We support an amendment to the Bill to prohibit tissue typing in order to create ‘saviour siblings’.

For more information on tissue typing see the document “Challenging God’s Creation Order and Design” (in particular see page 2, sub-paragraph 2):

http://www.lawcf.org/index.asp?page=Challenging+Creation+and+Design



Need for a father

Under current law all IVF providers have to take into account the child’s need for a father when considering whether to grant an IVF application.

The new bill will:

Remove the need for IVF providers to take into account the child’s need for a father when considering an IVF application. The removal of the 'need for a father' would send a clear signal to men that the government does not value the unique role of fathers in a child’s life. The repercussions of this would have devastating effects on families and the welfare of children.

The Bill will also confer legal parenthood on people who have no biological relationship to a child born as a result of IVF i.e. where there has been a sperm or egg donor or surrogacy. This will automatically create a legal fiction, whereby the concept of family is redefined in accordance with the wishes and preferences of each individual or couple. The result will be families of two mothers, or two fathers, or with mother-father fiction models. Unlike adoption, the best interests of that child will be overridden by the preferences of the individuals using donor conception or surrogacy, to have the right to be recognised legally as the child’s parent.

We support:

We support an amendment to retain the need for a father.

For more information on the redefinition of the family see the document “The Draft Human Tissue and Embryos Bill: Implications for the Family”:

http://www.lawcf.org/CMS/uploads/875/documents/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20LCF%20seminar%20on%20HTE%20Bill %205Nov2007%20full%20version..pdf



Artificial gametes and amendments tabled by Lord Patel



The Bill does not give sufficient protection against the future creation of artificial gametes (artificial sperm and eggs created from stem cells), which could potentially be used to help same sex couples produce their own genetic children.

Additionally, it is important that Peers are made aware of the fact that despite only one amendment currently being specifically presented in connection with artificial gametes, Lord Patel's amendments to assist the infertile, help research into diseases and amendments regarding the licences for therapy, have the potential, based on their legal wording,  to be widely interpreted as laying the ground work for artificial gametes (sperm and eggs created from stem cells in the laboratory) to be used in actual treatment. 

We support:



We support amendments to the Bill which ban the creation of artificial gametes on the face of the Bill.



Read more about artificial gametes by using the media links below:

General Links





Read our previous updates on the Bill:





How to write to Peers



We have provided a list of Peers you may wish to write to (see link below). Some of those on the list are already sympathetic to our position, but it is important that we encourage them to attend the debate to vote. Others on the list may not be sympathetic or may be undecided, so please use this opportunity to explain your views and concerns to them. Please write to as many as possible, using the email addresses provided or you can write to them at:



House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW



List of Peers to write to about animal-human hybrid embryos and artificial gametes

http://www.ccfon. org/docs/List_of_Peers_hybrids.xls


List of Peers to write to about saviour siblings and need for a father

http://www.ccfon.org/docs/List_of_Peers_saviour_siblings_fathers.xls



How to address Peers

Begin your letter to a:

Lord Viscount or Earl, as “Dear Lord [surname]”

Baroness, as “Dear Lady [surname]”

Archbishop or Duke, as “Your Grace”

Bishop, as “My Lord”



End your letter, “Yours sincerely”

On the envelope:

The Lord/Baroness/Viscount/Earl [surname] of [place]

His Grace the Archbishop of [place]

His Grace the Duke of [place]

The Lord Bishop of [place]





LCF/CCFON’s Letter to the Lords

Below is the text of a letter we sent to all members of the House of Lords in November:

Deconstruction of a Civilised Society - Ramifications of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act

We hope this Bill will concern all Peers - both the detail and the philosophy behind it are disturbing. The philosophy is nothing less than the deconstruction of the traditional family and a radical change in what it means to be human. We believe the Bill to be a dangerous experiment which puts the interests of the children affected at risk and has unknown consequences for the human race. The main issues are, in summary, as follows.


First, the Bill confers legal “parenthood” on couples undergoing assisted reproduction, even though they may be of the same gender and one, or indeed both, of them may have no biological relationship to the child. The result is that a legal fiction of “parenthood” will be created without any reference to biological reality. Unlike under the adoption process, this will be based on the preferences of adults, rather than the best interests of the child.

Secondly, the Bill will redefine what is meant by ‘human’, and the rights and dignities accorded to human life, by legalising the creation of embryos by fertilising a human egg with animal sperm, or fertilising an animal egg with human sperm. This is the most disturbing of a raft of provisions which will further downgrade the dignity of the embryo (something which the 1990 Act stipulated should be protected). In addition, the Bill needlessly repeals the Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001. This Act gave us a clear prohibition on placing a cloned embryo inside a woman, and indicated that such an act was beyond the ethical bounds of science. The prohibition should be clearly and expressly included in the new Bill, rather than implied.

Finally, the Bill will open up the abortion debate and it is to be expected that, despite the huge number of abortions that already take place in this nation, pro-abortionists will be seeking to further liberalise this area of the law so that it works in a way that was never intended when abortion was legalised 40 years ago.

Yours sincerely





Andrea Minichiello Williams

LCF Public Policy Director





Will the Government allow a free vote on the Bill?

There has been media coverage about whether the Government will allow its MPs to vote according to their conscience on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. On asking the Department of Health directly about this, we were told that there are no plans for a free vote on the Bill, other than on the issue of abortion.

Pro-life and Catholic MPs have voiced they would rebel against the whips, as the Bill involves matters of conscience rather than party political issues.

Please write to Gordon Brown and Lord Darzi of Denham, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health who introduced the Bill in the Lords, urging them to allow a free vote on all matters of conscience in the Bill.



You can write to Gordon Brown at:

House of Commons

London

SW1A 0AA



Or you can email him at

You can write to Lord Darzi of Denham at:

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW



Media Links





Ann Widdecombe tours the Nation to talk about the Bill



There will be a National Tour to raise awareness of the issues raised in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill led by Ann Widdecombe MP. We encourage you to attend the meetings, the dates of which are given below. For more information, please contact Ian Lucas at


Glasgow

The University Union, 2 University Avenue 

Wed 23rd Jan 7.30pm

Southampton 

Turner Sims Concert Hall, Uni of Southampton

Wed 30th Jan

London

Central Hall Westminster, SW1

Wed 6th Feb 7.00pm

Liverpool

The Liner Hotel, Lord Nelson Street

Tues 12th Feb 7.30pm

Coventry

Coventry Cathedral  

Wed 13th Feb 7.30pm

Widnes

The Foundry, Lugsdale Road          

Mon 18th Feb 7.30pm

Cardiff

The City Temple, Cowbridge Road East     

Tues 4th March 7.30pm

Belfast         

Assembly Rooms

31st Jan Time TBC


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