§ 2.3 pm
§ Mr. Jerry Wiggin (Weston-super-Mare)I beg leave to present a petition on behalf of the patients of Bourn Hall clinic. It reads:
The humble Petition of Patients at Bourn Hall clinic sheweth that Enoch Powell's Unborn Children (Protection) Bill will make it difficult to treat patients undergoing in vitro fertilisation. Wherefore your petitioners pray.
That petition contains 22 signatures from all over the United Kingdom.
I have a similar petition, which reads:
Enoch Powell's Unborn Children (Protection) Bill will slow down improvements in the treatment of patients undergoing in vitro fertilisation.
That petition contains 29 signatures, from all over the United Kingdom.
604 I entirely agree with the view expressed by the petitioners in this matter. I have had the privilege and blessing of three children, and I could not possibly be party to seeing any legislation passing through the House that deprived other people, who unfortunately are not so blessed, of that privilege.
To lie upon the Table.
§ 2.5 pm
§ Mr. Dave Nellist (Coventry, South-East)You will be aware, Mr. Speaker, that this is the first time that I have sought to present a petition to the House, though, like my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Mr. Dubs), in the past I have received petitions and, even though I disagreed with them, I have put them in the bag behind your Chair. That, I understand, is where the expression "in the bag" comes from when describing a completed project.
The petition that I present today bears the signatures of nearly 300 people from all parts of the country—from Alloa and Stirling in Scotland, from London and Surrey in the south and, in the midlands, from Birmingham, Warwick, Leamington and Coventry, including my own constituency.
The signatories petition against the Bill presented by the right hon. Member for South Down (Mr. Powell). They talk of the one in seven couples who would be affected by the Bill were it to be passed by the House and its restrictions on the treatment to reduce infertility or to discover the causes of severe handicaps and genetic defects.
The petition notes that these attacks will affect poor working-class women especially, because the rich can always go abroad to the various private clinics of Europe for the solution of their problems. The petitioners see the Bill as opening the way to an attack upon abortion, weakening the 1967 Act. As a Coventry Member of Parliament, in what is already one of the most difficult areas of the country in which to obtain an abortion, I give my full support to the petition.
The petition reads:
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The Humble Petition of United Kingdom Residents sheweth:—
that the Unborn Children (Protection) Bill will, if enacted, severely damage the treatment of infertile women, prevent much-needed research encroach upon patient confidentiality and give legal protection to the embryo.
Wherefore your petitioners pray that your Honourable House vote against the Unborn Children (Protection) Bill at Third Reading, realising that it pre-empts a proper consideration of the Warnock Report. By charging for application for a named woman to be treated for infertility by in vitro fertilisation it discriminates against poor women and brings the State into an area of private life; by severely restricting the use of fertilised embryos it damages research into infertility, cause of handicap, contraception, gene defects and treatment of infertility, by giving the embryo legal protection it accepts the view of a minority of the population and opens the way to an attack upon abortion and the use of some forms of contraception.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.
To lie upon the Table.
§ 2.8 pm
§ Mr. David Crouch (Canterbury)I beg to present two petitions on behalf of patients at Bourn Hall clinic, near Cambridge.
I shall be brief as I am anxious for the House to get on to the business of the day—a debate in which I wish to speak.
605 The petitions contain 59 signatures and are concerned that
Enoch Powell's Unborn Children (Protection) Bill will have adverse effects on the treatment of patients undergoing fertility treatment.
The other petition refers to the fact that the Bill will seriously slow down the treatment of patients undergoing in vitro fertilisation.
I support the petitioners' prayer to the House.
To lie upon the Table.
§ 2.9 pm
§ Dr. Michael Clark (Rochford)I beg leave to present two petitions on behalf of patients in Bourn Hall clinic in Cambridgeshire. Both petitions demonstrate that the patients feel that the Unborn Children (Protection) Bill would hinder work being done at Bourn Hall and that patients there are concerned about the Bill.
The first petition reads:
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The Humble Petition of patients at Bourn Hall clinic sheweth:—
that the Unborn Children (Protection) Bill will have adverse consequences for patients undergoing in vitro fertilisation.
Wherefore your petitioners pray that your Honourable House vote against the Unborn Children (Protection) Bill at Third Reading.
And your petitioners as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc. The petition is signed by Richard Oram and is supported by 38 other patients at Bourn hall.
The second petition reads:
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The Humble Petition of patients who have received treatment for infertility at Bourn Hall, Cambridge, Sheweth:—
that the Unborn Children (Protection) Bill will make treatment almost impossible because of the time limitation.
Wherefore your petitioners pray that your Honourable House vote against the Unborn Children (Protection) Bill at Third Reading.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc. The petition is signed by Diana Barbour and 23 other patients at Bourn hall.
I should like to comment—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The hon. Gentleman has now read out his prayer, so he cannot comment. He should have done that before.
§ Mr. SpeakerYes, all right.
§ Dr. ClarkThe people who have signed the petition include two housewives who say that they are pregnant through the in vitro fertilisation technique.
606 To lie upon the Table.