Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Statutory Storage Period for Embryos and Gametes) Regulations 2009

My Lords, first I apologise for arriving in the Chamber a few minutes late. I very much support the noble Earl, Lord Howe. I put my name to the Prayer to Annul and then gave way to the noble Earl to allow him to make the first speech. I was very glad to do so because he has done most of the work and I agree with everything that he has said. I am a member of the Merits Committee. When the issue came before us, we viewed it with considerable concern but, perhaps in defence of the committee for the brief word of criticism of it, it is fair to say that it is our practice to be cautious in our comments. Indeed, the facts speak for themselves, and we raised the issue with this House as a matter of public interest, which it clearly is. I am extremely concerned about the proposal for 55 years. It sounds like a Rip van Winkle story. What will the person be 55 years after the embryo has been created to the moment that the baby is born? There is an element of the unnatural about it and that concerns me very much. I have two main points to make. One concerns the medical implications. The first point, as the noble Earl said, is that it requires the opinion of only one medical practitioner, but as far as I can see it does not even need the medical practitioner to see the person who is said to be prematurely infertile. All that is required is a written opinion, which can be done on the papers. That is a very unsatisfactory method. One has to ask whether there has been any animal research on keeping gametes or embryos to see what they are like after 55 years, or even after 40 years. I suspect that the problem is not only in the freezing but the thawing. What will be the position when the embryo or gamete—particularly the embryo—is thawed as late as 40, 45 or 50 years on? We are in uncharted territory. As the noble Earl said, we have moved from five to 10 to 55 years in one go. One might have thought that we would move from 10 to 20, or even to 30, but we have moved to 55 without the medical knowledge. Very distinguished doctors, many of whom are in this House say that they do not know that there is very much difference between 10, 20 or 55 years, but if I may respectfully say so, they do not know. No one has been born after 55 years so the medical problems may be very serious, and it will be after the lifetime of quite a number of Members of this House. The other thing is the practical considerations. I had the misfortune to try an extremely sad case when couples A and B had their gametes switched. Two children who turned out not to be white were born to an all-white family because they had the gametes of Mr B who came from an ethnic minority. They were twins so six people were damaged: the white family with non-white twins; the black family who never had any children; and the children themselves who were mixed race in a family who adored them but found it difficult to come to terms with what had happened. Those were mistakes that happened on the day that the families went to the clinic. What sort of tracking will we have over anything up to 55 years? There will not be the same personnel in the clinics and the opportunities for mistakes and for not being as efficient as might be expected stand out. The noble Baroness, Lady Deech, who is not here at the moment was particularly anxious that I should raise those two points not only on my own behalf but on her behalf, bearing in mind that she was the first chairman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.