Parents should have right to choose sex of child, say MPs
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《英国医生杂志》
Parents should be allowed to use preimplantation genetic diagnosis to choose the sex of their children to "balance" their families, a committee of MPs concluded last week in a report from which half its members dissented.
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee also said that the laboratory production of chimeras in which animal and human cells are mixed for research purposes should be legal, as long as they were destroyed within 14 days and implanting them in a woman was banned.
The report on human reproductive technology and the law said opposition to reproductive cloning was based "more on taboos than coherent argument." An indefinite absolute ban, assuming the technology was in the future shown to be safe, effective, and reliable, would not be considered rational without "principled arguments."
The 10 member committee is chaired by Dr Ian Gibson MP, a former university dean of biology. The five members who dissented—Paul Farrelly, Kate Hoey, Geraldine Smith, Bob Spink, and Tony McWalter—said in a statement: "We believe the report is unbalanced, light on ethics, goes too far in the direction of deregulation, and is too dismissive of public opinion and much of the evidence. Had all of us been able to have been at the final session, sadly as it stands we would been forced to vote against adoption of the report."
An endoscopic image showing the genitals of a human fetus in vitro at nine weeks, with the so called "indifferent phallus" which could develop into either a penis or clitoris
Credit: ALEXANDER TSIARASW/SPL
The committee recommended that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority be "abolished in its present form and replaced by a regulator focused solely on maintaining the highest technical and management standards in clinics and laboratories."
It called for stronger parliamentary and ethical oversight, with clinical decision making and technical standards devolved to patients and professionals.
Requirements on clinics to consider the welfare of any potential child and the need for the child to have a father should be scrapped, and sperm and egg donors should be allowed to remain anonymous, it said. Legislation to remove donor anonymity, which the report said was based on "inadequate and misleading" evidence, is due to come into force this week (1 April).
The report called for a joint committee of peers and MPs to review developments in relation to abortion since the 1967 Abortion Act and for a new bioethics committee drawn from both houses of parliament to consider legislation when necessary in the light of technological advances.
Michael Wilkes, chairman of the BMA's ethics committee, said: "We are particularly opposed to proposals which would allow parents to select the gender of their children for social reasons."(Clare Dyer, legal correspondent)
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee also said that the laboratory production of chimeras in which animal and human cells are mixed for research purposes should be legal, as long as they were destroyed within 14 days and implanting them in a woman was banned.
The report on human reproductive technology and the law said opposition to reproductive cloning was based "more on taboos than coherent argument." An indefinite absolute ban, assuming the technology was in the future shown to be safe, effective, and reliable, would not be considered rational without "principled arguments."
The 10 member committee is chaired by Dr Ian Gibson MP, a former university dean of biology. The five members who dissented—Paul Farrelly, Kate Hoey, Geraldine Smith, Bob Spink, and Tony McWalter—said in a statement: "We believe the report is unbalanced, light on ethics, goes too far in the direction of deregulation, and is too dismissive of public opinion and much of the evidence. Had all of us been able to have been at the final session, sadly as it stands we would been forced to vote against adoption of the report."
An endoscopic image showing the genitals of a human fetus in vitro at nine weeks, with the so called "indifferent phallus" which could develop into either a penis or clitoris
Credit: ALEXANDER TSIARASW/SPL
The committee recommended that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority be "abolished in its present form and replaced by a regulator focused solely on maintaining the highest technical and management standards in clinics and laboratories."
It called for stronger parliamentary and ethical oversight, with clinical decision making and technical standards devolved to patients and professionals.
Requirements on clinics to consider the welfare of any potential child and the need for the child to have a father should be scrapped, and sperm and egg donors should be allowed to remain anonymous, it said. Legislation to remove donor anonymity, which the report said was based on "inadequate and misleading" evidence, is due to come into force this week (1 April).
The report called for a joint committee of peers and MPs to review developments in relation to abortion since the 1967 Abortion Act and for a new bioethics committee drawn from both houses of parliament to consider legislation when necessary in the light of technological advances.
Michael Wilkes, chairman of the BMA's ethics committee, said: "We are particularly opposed to proposals which would allow parents to select the gender of their children for social reasons."(Clare Dyer, legal correspondent)