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

My Lords, I speak as someone who is no scientist, nor a philosopher, nor a jurist, but as a Member of your Lordships’ House who senses that we may be looking at an issue that has not been subject to proper parliamentary scrutiny in another place—and, were it not for my noble friend’s excellent Motion, would have had no proper scrutiny in your Lordship’s House, let alone any full discussion by the general public. It is easy to sneer them away, particularly in the scientific community, but the general public have perfectly proper ethical concerns. Mine are twofold. First, I instinctively distrust the thought of scrambling the generations—indeed, to use shocking language, I dislike it intensely. However, these points have been very well made by my noble friend Lord Howe from the Front Bench and, if I may say respectfully—to use the argot of the trade—by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and, indeed, by the noble Baroness, Lady Masham, to whose excellent speech we have all just listened. In the interests of time, I shall not elaborate on or repeat what they have said, because we have only a short debate. The scrambling of the generations is a purely utilitarian approach to the problems of humanity. That is my first reason for disliking these regulations. My second, to which I shall speak a little more, is that they also have an equally utilitarian, nay almost casual, disregard for the later welfare of those who have been born in this way. There is absolutely no concern expressed—not by the department, the Government or anyone else from officialdom—for the welfare of these children, once they find out that the person they thought was their mother was also their half-sister, and that the person they have happily been calling Granny, they should actually have been calling Mummy. I do not think that has struck home at all, but it is true. There is, perhaps, an intention by the Government to prevent children born in this way, by regulation, learning about their background and from whence they have sprung. I am sure that the Minister will, with her characteristic openness, wish to say "Yes" or "No" to the Government’s intentions about transparency, and whether they intend to move to prevent a child from knowing that they came as someone who has been born through scrambling of the generations. Also, the Minister cannot deny that the Government are making absolutely no provision to deal with the seemingly certain emotional distress for children, if they find out that they have been born in that way. I have tried to think about their psychological confusion. If I had suddenly found that out as a teenager, I would have fallen prey to it, just like that, and to the identity crises on stilts that would surely follow—born, as they were, as the result of what seems to be a developing, full-on Eugenics Society policy from the Government. I have two points with which to conclude, in the interests of time. The Government seem to have given no thought whatever to what to do after creating an open door to the manufacture of genetic backgrounds. Those may indeed be within, first, hitherto legally prohibited degrees of relationship and, secondly, there is the possibility of unhealthy relationships developing within the family. I do not criticise the Minister, as I shall get straight answers to these points, but that is what these regulations do. I really would suggest, with respect to the Minister, that the Government should take these regulations away, think again, allow a proper public debate and bring them back to the House in a more seemly fashion.