Artificial insemination findings under study

Press, 3 November 1984, Page 6

Artificial insemination findings under study

PA Auckland A Justice Department Sr on legal aspects of cial conception to be released next month will take into account controversial findings of a Govern-ment-appointed committee in London of 16 doctors, scientists, and lay people who advocated the creation of embryos for research. The committee said it should be legal for doctors to create human embryos in the laboratory. Experiments would be allowed for up to 14 days, but after that would be a criminal offence. The committee also said that no embryo would be kept alive beyond 14 days if it was not transferred to a womb. New Zealand has not yet formalised any legal guidelines for doctors working on in-vitro fertilisation programmes and fertilisation

techniques using artificial insemination by a donor.. Earlier this year the former Attorney-General, Mr McLay, said no decision would be made on New Zealand law until the recommendations of the English committee were known. This week a spokesman for the Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer, said the committee’s findings would be taken into account in the pa a studying the social, legal, and ethical aspects of artificial conception for 18 months, the committee, which was headed by an Oxford University researcher, Dame Mary Warnock, recommended: © Allowing in-vitro fertilisation and freezing of human embryos, and ensuring provisions for their storage. After 10 years, or if the parents die, the rights to use

or dispose of an embryo should pass to the storage authority. © Regulating trans-species fertilisation between humans and animals as an aid to infertility diagnosis or treatment, provided that resulting hybrids should not be allowed to develop be- - yond the two-cell stage. • Banning the practice of surrogate pregnancies and especially the involvement of commercial agencies. • Permitting the sale or purchase of semen, eggs, and embryos under licence. © A statutory body which would license, regulate, and monitor both infertility services and research establishments. In a recent statement, Mr Palmer said the. paper would examine all these issues.