HC Deb 28 May 1962 vol 660 cc946-7
4. Mr. K. Robinson

asked the Parliamentary Secretary for Science what research into the causes and treatment of muscular dystrophy is being carried out by the Medical Research Council; and what is the approximate annual expenditure involved.

Mr. Denzil Freeth

I would refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply which I gave to the hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Hale) on 27th February, 1962.

Mr. Robinson

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that there are 20,000 sufferers from this horrible disease in this country, most of them children? Is the comparative lack of research into the causes of the disease due to lack of finance or to the lack of a promising lead?

Mr. Freeth

It certainly is not due to the lack of finance. The difficulty here is that muscular dystrophy is not a single disease entity but the name given to a group of diseases of unknown causes. Therefore, we are having to do research on a very wide field to try to cover the ground. The Medical Research Council is in fact doing this, as is also a charitable organisation, the Muscular Dystrophy Group.

Mr. Lipton

Is it not rather pathetic that the good and kindly people who are interested in the Muscular Dystrophy Group should be selling milk bottle tops and things like that to scrape a bit of money together for the purpose of doing something about this horrible disease?

Mr. Freeth

No. I think that it is a strength in our research organisation that there is not only one body, State-sponsored, to whom the would-be researcher can go to get funds. I think that it is a very good thing that there is a private body as well as the State-financed body, because, after all, a decision whether or not to support a given line of research or a proposed line of research is a matter of judgment and it is always possible for people to be wrong.

Mr. Mitchison

Will the hon. Gentleman remember the comments about biological research in the last Report of the Advisory Council on Scientific Research? The Council said that biological research was rather neglected? Will the Parliamentary Secretary bear that in mind when organising research into this and other biological matters?

Mr. Freeth

Certainly. My noble Friend is paying particular attention to the Report of the Advisory Council and to a recent Report by the Royal Society.