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An influential committee of British politicians will advise tomorrow (March 24) that the government should allow couples to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) purely for sex selection, as part of a package of fertility regulation reforms.
The proposal from the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, revealed by a newspaper earlier this week, comes ahead of a wider reorganization of the way fertility science is regulated in the United Kingdom.
The proposal has stirred widespread debate and faces opposition even from within the committee itself, whose 10 members are split over the question of sex selection and other measures in the committee's report, which they deem to be part of an overhasty process of liberalization—particularly a reexamination of a ban on human reproductive cloning.
"I was one of the more vociferous of the five MPs against," Bob Spink, a member of the select committee, told The Scientist. "I'm against the irrational, inept liberalization that flies against the views of public opinion."
He cited evidence obtained by the committee finding that 85% of the UK public were opposed to IVF for sex selection in the absence of other motives, such as screening for sex-linked disorders. "If we're not going to follow public opinion, we need good, evidence-based reasons, and these are lacking here," Spink said.
But Ian Gibson, chair of the committee, insisted that the recommendations, to be put forward in a report called Human Reproductive Technologies and the Law, present a balanced picture taking account of scientific evidence.
Gibson added that there is broader agreement within the committee on recommendations concerning the regulatory framework around fertility science, notably on a reduced role for the existing regulator of reproductive science, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), during a period leading to its probable dissolution in 2008. "The HFEA's role will be limited," he told The Scientist.
However, the exact future shape of fertility regulation in the United Kingdom is not yet clear. The current government plan is for regulation of IVF clinics and their activities to be shared between the HFEA and the as-yet unformed Human Tissue Authority until 2008, when they would merge to form the Regulatory Authority for Tissue and Embryology (RATE). But this will require further legislation to set up.
Meanwhile, the Science and Technology Committee is recommending that the HFEA should no longer rule categorically on ethical matters, but there is uncertainty over who, if anyone, will take over that role. It is possible that a bioethics committee will be established to advise the House of Commons on a range of issues including fertility treatment, according to Spink.
This would please the pro-life lobby, which has long opposed the HFEA's prerogative to set ethical guidelines. "We have always argued that ethical decisions should be debated and discussed at parliamentary level rather than by an unelected [group]," Josephine Quintavalle, head of the public interest group "Comment on Reproductive Ethics," told The Scientist.
The HFEA's chief executive, Suzi Leather, argued at the agency's annual meeting on March 15 that the need for independent regulation of fertility treatment was as strong as ever, given the rate of innovation in the field. She did concede, however, that Parliament should set the ethical framework.
How the reorganization of ethics governance will affect the United Kingdom's research community is unclear. The authority's future role in ethical matters will depend on the government's review of the governing legislation, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which is expected later in the summer and will take into account the Science and Technology Committee's recommendations.
Stephen Minger, of King's College London, said the HFEA had done a good job of regulating the emerging field of cell nuclear replacement. "They've done an incredibly good job," he told The Scientist. "I think Suzi Leather has done a terrific job of running the HFEA these last 3 years."
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