HC Deb 04 November 1968 vol 772 cc452-3
33. Mr. St. John-Stevas

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the Government's policy on the law governing organ transplant operations.

The Secretary of State for Social Services (Mr. Richard Grossman):

I have this matter under consideration but I am not yet ready to make a statement.

Mr. St. John-Stevas:

Does not the right hon. Gentleman realise that the need for clear and well drafted legislation on this subject is pressing and urgent? Is he aware that if he is not prepared to act I shall seek leave to introduce a Bill myself?

Mr. Crossman:

That is a threat which I contemplate with equanimity. The hon. Gentleman ought to realise that this is a matter on which there is a strong minority opinion which has to be carefully considered. I would have thought that, with this kind of new development, a little caution would be good even for the most brilliant academics.

Mr. Shinwell:

Did my right hon. Friend observe that it was previously suggested that he had a brilliant academic brain? Could not that be transplanted to the hon. Gentleman opposite?

Sir G. Nabarro:

Does the right hon. Gentleman appreciate that in the last Session a piece of initiating private Members' legislation, backed by all parties in the House, six doctors and six laymen, passed through First and Second Readings and Committee stage and was frustrated only by lack of time? Will he examine those proceedings with a view to renewing them in the forthcoming Session in that area of organ transplant surgery which has alone proved wholly successful to date?

Mr. Crossman:

The hon. Gentleman will be surprised to hear that I spent some part of Sunday studying those proceedings with very great interest. They confirm me in my view that this is a very complicated and difficult matter. I would prefer to legislate adequately rather than inadequately. If the hon. Gentleman has any success with his Bill again, I will consider it on its merits, but I advise him that to legislate for just one kind of organ would be wasteful. This is a problem to deal with generally as part of the techniques of modern surgery.