Assisted reproduction laws must be flexible, says expert

ASSISTED human reproduction (AHR) laws must be flexible enough to make allowances for scientific advances and changes in what societies deem acceptable, an Irish fertility expert warned yesterday.

Prof Robert Harrison of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, said the regulators must bear in mind how advances in AHR have already transformed people’s lives.

They also needed to be aware of mistakes already made in AHR and ensure that whatever system is put in place in Ireland is best suited to the country’s needs.

Prof Harrison, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, was addressing a major public conference on AHR organised by the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction.

The commission is preparing a report for Health Minister Micheál Martin on the possible approaches to the regulation of all aspects of assisted human reproduction.

Prof Harrison pointed out that it was not until 1978 when the world’s first test-tube baby was born that the need to regulate was first argued.

Practice guidelines were first formulated by the institute in 1985 around the time when the first attempts at IVF in Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital in Dublin were made.

The guidelines were later adopted by the Medical Council in their Guide to Ethical Conduct and Behaviour in 1989 and again in 1994 after modification by an institute IVF sub-group. All of the guidelines in place since 1998 are the work of the council alone.

Prof Harrison commended the Government for establishing the commission, an initiative that was totally supported by the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Mr Martin, who also addressed the conference, said recent unconfirmed reports of cloned human babies, had added a degree of urgency to the importance of effective controls in this area.

He also wanted to make it perfectly clear that the Government was totally opposed to human cloning and that once the commission has produced its report there would be no undue delay in regulating the area.

The conference was also addressed Baroness Warnock, who chaired the Committee of Enquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology and whose report formed the basis of legislation in Britain.

She pointed out that cloning was now illegal in Britain, a practice that would probably be prohibited throughout Europe. Despite claims that two cloned babies had been born she believed that the likelihood of human cloning being practiced in the future was “remote”.

Fidelma Fitzpatrick, who was successful in her third attempt to conceive a child using IVF at a clinic in Britain the mid-1990s said the voice of consumers needed to be heard in the debate. “People using infertility services are extremely vulnerable so whatever regulatory system is put in place needs to be transparent,” she said.