Human Fertilisation and Embryology
Debate between Julian Huppert and Robert Flello(9 years, 9 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)
The hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley (John Hemming) almost caught me napping.
It would be ridiculous to suggest that anybody in this House does not want a cure for mitochondrial disease; it is a horrible disease. But if we understood properly how mitochondrial DNA worked, we might find ourselves closer to finding a cure for that disease. My right hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Frank Dobson) said that we had heard all these arguments before. Well, yes, we did hear an argument before. It was back in 2007 when Members were marched through the Lobby to support the human-animal hybrid legislation. That legislation was going to solve numerous problems, and some Members said, “How could anybody dare to object to such legislation?” But what has happened to that legislation, that panacea? Well, nobody can get a grant for that work now because it has been proved that it does not work. All the concerns, hopes and heartache of the time got us nowhere. I really fear for the families today. If this motion passes today and it does become law, those families, who are, understandably, pinning everything on it, will be tragically let down.
Robert Flello
I will take an intervention shortly. Reference has been made to the Zhang study. That study was not considered by the HFEA. Even if we said that Chinese medicine is terrible and that 10 years ago it was irrelevant and not ethical, the HFEA should still have considered it, but it did not. A number of Members have claimed that mitochondrial donation is like blood transfusion—nothing more than that. Well, no it is not like that. It is modifying the human germ line. As the HFEA has said, maternal spindle transfer is genetic modification of the egg and pronuclear transfer is genetic modification of the embryo. Think about it, colleagues. Why are we in the Chamber today to discuss this procedure if it is not genetic modification? If changing the germ line is not genetic modification, we do not need the statutory instrument. The HFEA could get on with it. It has therefore answered itself.
Dr Huppert
I listened to what the hon. Gentleman said about hope, and he is right that we do not know how this will play out. There might be people who have hope who will not succeed. What I cannot understand is why he is saying that to avoid people having their hopes dashed later, we should dash them today.
Robert Flello
It is simply that this legislation will open up research that is illegal, as I shall describe in a moment. I also think there are greater concerns about generations down the line.
The EU clinical trials directive, which applies to all clinical work, states:
“No gene therapy trials may be carried out that result in modification to the subject’s germline genetic identity.”
The HFEA itself has said that this procedure does. In the legal opinion on the regulations, Lord Brennan QC has said that they are caught by the directive and that they are
“likely to be in breach of EU law”
on clinical trials.
The Department of Health examined the legal opinion but rejected it, saying that the licence will not be granted for clinical trial but for treatment and therefore will not be caught by that law. Apparently, this is not about clinical trials and furthering the science but about going straight for treatment.
Lord Brennan’s opinion anticipated that. He set out the relevant paragraphs from the 2011 report on safety from the review panel set up by the Secretary of State to monitor the procedures to the HFEA, which said:
“Once assessed as safe to use in clinical practice, the panel strongly recommends that permission is sought from the parents of the children born from MST and PNT to be followed up for an extensive period”
and that such permission should be sought from the children themselves once they are old enough. In the case of females, that should ideally be to the next generation. Those recommendations should also apply to pre-implantation genetic diagnosis for mitochondrial DNA genetic disease.