New controversy about human embryo research

UK MPs debated the Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill during May 2008. Find out more about revisions they discussed and the outcome of their vote.

Introduction

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act was passed in 1990, when it was set up to provide legislation to govern the use of early embryos in research, and the treatment of human embryos generally. It provides a licence to clinics that provide fertility treatment and it also monitors their performance. The act also oversees all research in the UK that involves work on human embryos. The main point of the act is to protect the rights of the people involved - the parents, or intended parents, the sperm or egg donors, and, most importantly, the children that result from infertility treatment.

The act also deals with some of the legal issues to do with human genetics such as cloning, human cloning, using embryonic stem cells and stem cell search.

The act is managed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

What does the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act cover?

The original bill covered three main areas:

Treatment for infertility in which eggs or sperm that have been donated are used to start a pregnancy: eg. Donor sperm insemination, donation of eggs for implantation in another woman. Or, fertility treatment that involves the implantation of embryos created outside the human body: eg. In vitro fertilisation.
How human eggs, sperm and early stage embryos are stored. In the original act, it was decided that embryos can only be stored for five years. Sperm or eggs can be stored for a decade. After that, they should be destroyed.
Research that involves any work on early human embryos: this includes the use of embryonic stem cells in stem cell research, research into human genetics, genetic disorders and genetic diseases.

The 1990 act and the rules on abortion

The 1990 act also updated the rules on abortion, which were first set up in a separate act, the Abortion Act of 1967. The amendments to the abortion act that are contained in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act say that abortions can be carried out only if two doctors agree that one of the following four criteria has been met:

Continuing with the pregnancy will threaten the life of the pregnant woman.
Continuing the pregnancy will pose a serious threat to the physical or mental health of the woman.
If the pregnancy continues, the unborn child is a great risk of suffering either serious physical or mental problems as a result.
The unborn child has an abnormality, such as a genetic disorder that will result in serious physical or mental handicap.

Those against abortion disagree with the act but agree that abortion should be medically controlled and regulated.

Links

Anti-abortion - pro life

Abortion statistics

Abortion facts

Human genetic disorders

Previous amendments to the 1990 Act

In 2000 and 2001, amendments to the first and last parts of the act became law to allow:

A dead man’s sperm to be used in in vitro fertilisation. This came about after a campaign by Diane Blood who won the right to use her dead husband’s sperm to have IVF treatment and to have two children, one in 1999 and one in 2002. She later won the further battle to have him officially recognised as their father.

Scientists to create embryos specifically for use in therapeutic cloning - these embryos are created only for their stem cells, which are used in stem cell research that intends to develop a treatment for a serious illness. They are never intended to be implanted to initiate a pregnancy. Human cloning is forbidden in terms of creating the clone of a person with the intention of starting a pregnancy so that the clone is born and lives.