Human fertilisation and embryology bill; the status provisions

Abstract

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill published in November makes further provision for regulating and supervising assisted conception, such as artificial insemination, in vitro fertilisation, embryo transfer and related techniques. It also contains, in Clause 11, the controversial proposals which will permit or restrict further research on live human embryos. In this note, however, I want to concentrate on three clauses, 26–28, which deal with the status of children born following such assisted reproduction. They may have an important and decisive effect on questions such as personal identity, inheritance and legitimacy. In their way, they raise questions of moral complexity equal to those which are likely to occupy the headlines during the Bill's legislative passage.