New possibilities for culturing human eggs and sperm in the laboratory – and related risks, benefits and ethical considerations – have led the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to consider whether the law in this area should be reviewed.
In vitro gametogenesis (IVG) is the process of creating functional gametes (eggs or sperm) outside the body, usually from stem cells. IVG has led to live births in animals including mice (see BioNews 1104 and 1112) and rats (see BioNews 1140). Researchers have not yet succeeded in creating mature, viable human gametes via IVG, but human gamete precursors have been created in this way (see BioNews 1240) and further advances are expected. At its most recent meeting, the HFEA discussed whether and in what circumstances certain uses of IVG should be permitted, or prohibited, in treatment in future.
'These technologies are not ready yet, and they are not lawful in treatment in this country. What we are trying to do is get ahead of the issue here,' Peter Thompson, chief executive of the HFEA, told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. 'Rather than be surprised by something, we need to start to talk about whether or not the law should be amended to allow these sorts of technologies. And are there some things that should just be outlawed?'
At its meeting, the HFEA discussed four questions concerning IVG. First, HFEA members agreed that there is a case for recommending that IVG is subject to more explicit statutory regulation than exists at present.
Second, HFEA members agreed that there is a case for introducing secondary legislation related to IVG in future. This way, IVG could be permitted and regulated in human reproduction if and when it becomes appropriate to do so, rather than the whole of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act having to be opened up for Parliamentary debate in order to achieve this.
Third, HFEA members agreed that it should be made more explicit in primary legislation that IVG cannot be used in treatment (unless secondary legislation is introduced that permits this). It is already the case that any human embryo created from an in vitro derived gamete could not legally be transferred to a patient's womb, because such an embryo would not constitute a 'permitted' embryo under the current law, but HFEA members thought that this prohibition should be formulated more explicitly.
Finally, HFEA members agreed that there should be an explicit preemptive prohibition of certain 'biologically dangerous' and 'ethically and socially complex' uses of IVG for reproduction, including hypothetical scenarios where it might become possible for a child to have only one biological parent or to have more than two biological parents. However, it was noted that such uses of IVG may come to seem more acceptable in the future, and such prohibitions would need to be reviewed as science and society develop.
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