Her committee arrived at two core conclusions. First, it approved the use of IVF technology and, subject to certain restrictions (such as a ban on contracts for surrogacy), recommended that it be available in the National Health Service. It suggested the government set up an expert committee to regulate the field and keep track of new developments – the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Second, it advised that the government should permit research on the human embryo, but only for up to 14 days after fertilisation.
After the conclusions were published in the Warnock Report, in 1984, debate focused mainly on this latter issue: should human embryos be biological material for laboratory experiments? Or should they be regarded as embryonic human beings and safeguarded from abuse?
While the Report’s “14 days” recommendation did become the basis for public policy in the UK, it’s interesting to note that there was dissent from two groups within the committee. Dissent B, which garnered three votes, argued that nothing should be done to prevent the implantation of an embryo created by IVF. In other words, there should be no research use of so-called “spare” embryos created for implantation but not required. Dissent C, with four votes, argued a middle way: “spare” embryos could be used for research, but there should be no deliberate creation of embryos for research purposes. So, taken together, seven votes out of 16 against creating research embryos; a close vote. (A detailed summary here.)
That’s particularly interesting, since the one international treaty on bioethics – the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, opened for signature in 1997 – specifically prohibits the creation of embryos for research. It’s no surprise that while as a member of the Council of Europe the UK was involved in negotiating this treaty, it has refused to sign it.
Britain might actually have invented the technology and then proposed an ethical/legal framework but other nations haven’t followed suit. Germany and France, have prohibited or severely limited such research and in the United States, where federal government funding is the core issue, both parties have refused to endorse creating embryos for research 1
This week, exactly 40 years after Louise’s ‘miraculous’ arrival, those early ‘playing God’ fears have intensified. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, which has long functioned as the UK’s unofficial national bioethics committee, announced a few days ago that it was “morally permissible” to edit the DNA of a human embryo, sperm or egg to alter a future person’s characteristics. Nor did they rule out the alteration of cosmetic traits and “enhancements” – inevitably triggering designer baby headlines.
For the first time we have a major report recommending the green light to inheritable genetic changes that go beyond efforts to correct inheritable disease
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The report, Genome Editing and Human Reproduction: Social and Ethical Issues, specified that engineering efforts “must be intended to secure, and be consistent with, the welfare of the future person”, and “they should not increase disadvantage, discrimination or division in society”. But for the first time we have a major report recommending the green light to inheritable genetic changes that go beyond efforts to correct inheritable disease.
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