MPs support HFE Bill

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill has cleared its Commons stages after a row about the lack of debate on reforming abortion laws.

The Bill, which allows experiments on hybrid human-animal embryos, passed despite a rebellion by 16 Labour MPs, BBC News reports. After passing its third and final reading in the Commons by a large majority, the Bill will now go the Lords.

Among the Labour rebels was Catholic MP Ruth Kelly, who quit the cabinet this month. Two other Catholic MPs - former defence secretary Des Browne, who also left the cabinet in this month’s reshuffle, and Wales Secretary Paul Murphy voted in favour of the Bill.

MPs from all parties criticised ministers for excluding abortion from the debate and not allowing enough time to discuss other aspects of the bill. The vote on 22 October was on issues including the growing of “hybrid embryos” for stem cells but some MPs were annoyed that no time was allowed to debate other issues.

A timetable drawn up by ministers allowed only three and a half hours debate and put clauses related to abortion at the end of the list - time ran out before they were discussed. It has been reported that the government may allow parliamentary debate time on abortion in two years’ time, but health minister Ms Primarolo said there were “no plans” to introduce a specific bill on the issue.

Labour MP Diane Abbott said the government’s unwillingness to debate the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act, which legalised terminations under certain conditions, to Northern Ireland was “shabby”. It would leave women there as “second-class citizens”, she said.

Tory spokesman Mark Simmonds said there was “real concern and anger” within Parliament that debate on key issues would be limited. And Lib Dem spokesman Norman Lamb urged the government to give a commitment to provide additional time for a separate debate on abortion laws. But Labour MP Sir Gerald Kaufman defended the government’s approach, saying the bill was not primarily about abortion and it would be wrong to “pin” amendments onto it at this stage.

The Democratic Unionist Party said the “sensitive” issue of abortion rights in Northern Ireland should ultimately be decided by the Northern Ireland Assembly, not the Westminster Parliament. DUP member Jeffrey Donaldson said all parties in Northern Ireland were united in this view and that, should the amendment be passed, it would cause “considerable problems for the political process”. It has been reported that ministers were reluctant to allow a vote on these issues given the strength of opposition in Northern Ireland. But the DUP denied it had done “any deal” with the government.

The Bill’s third reading had been due in July but was delayed until the autumn amid claims that the government was worried about its political impact in the run-up to the Glasgow East by-election.

In Wednesday’s debate, a number of MPs claimed measures in the bill would leave the door open to reproductive human cloning in the future.

Tory MP Edward Leigh said confusion over such an important issue was “dangerous” but Ms Primarolo said there was a “clear prohibition” on the practice in the bill. She added that the bill would enable research to help tackle “dreadful and debilitating” genetic conditions within an “ethical framework”. “I believe we have arrived at the right balance of controlling but not constraining scientific research,” she said.

The Conservative Party, which permitted its MPs a free vote on the bill, said it would keep the UK at the “forefront of medical innovation”, while “protecting the special status of the embryo”.

The Lib Dems, which also offered a free vote, said it would advance scientific research while providing a secure ethical framework.

MPs support embryology proposals. BBC News, 23 October 2008

Also read:

1967 Abortion Act section, Abortion Review