§ VISCOUNT MASSEREENE AND FERRARDMy Lords, I bag to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will consider, in view of the over-population of this country, banning the fertility drug until further research can ensure there is little risk of multiple births.]
§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SECURITY (BARONESS SEROTA)My Lords, fertility drugs are administered in the main by experts in infertility problems at only a few specialised centres in this country. No figures are available centrally for births from patients treated with such drugs, but I understand from inquiries at the centres concerned that the number of such patients is very small indeed. The effect of the very small numbers of multiple births arising out of the use of such drugs on the expansion of the population of this country is insignificant, and in those circumstances Her Majesty's Government see no grounds for seeking to secure discontinuance of the use of such drugs.
§ VISCOUNT MASSEREENE AND FERRARDMy Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for that Answer. But would she not agree that the birth of sextuplets could cause shock and embarrassment to the mother? Further, can the noble Baroness say whether there is any risk of the children of multiple births not growing up into normal, healthy human beings?
§ BARONESS SEROTAMy Lords, I think, we had better get our definitions right. The term "multiple births" includes, of course, twins: it does not apply only to quads and quins. As regards the parents' reactions, I should think that it would be just as great a shock to the father as it would be to the mother. In reply to the last part of the noble Viscount's supplementary question, I would only say that treatment of this kind is normally initiated at the request of parents who are most anxious to have children; and having recently visited, in Queen Charlotte's Hospital, the quins who were successfully both born and reared, I can only say what immense joy it gave to the parents of the quins to have five beautiful little girls.
§ VISCOUNT MASSEREENE AND FERRARDMy Lords, while thanking the noble Baroness for that answer, may I ask whether she is aware that, while I am absolutely delighted that childless couples can have children through the use of this drug, what I suggested was that the birth of sextuplets could cause shock.
§ LORD LEATHERLANDMy Lords, does not my noble friend think that the noble Viscount has probably conceived this problem wrongly; and, if it is a question of preventing over-population, would not a thorough-going inquiry, perhaps by a Royal Commission, into the whole question of contraception yield more useful results?
§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILLMy Lords, may I ask my noble friend, absolutely seriously, whether she does not think that a much more effective way of reducing the population is not to withdraw the fertility drugs from women but to teach more men birth control?
§ BARONESS SEROTAMy Lords, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State and I have I think made clear our very great concern to see the family planning services, both for men and for women, fully developed in this country.
§ LORD SEGALMy Lords, would not my noble friend agree that it would be a wholly retrograde step to ban the prescribing of these drugs so long as this is retained in the hands of qualified specialists and for so long as the need for further research continues to exist?
§ BARONESS SEROTAMy Lords, in reply to my noble friend I would just say: yes, my Lords, I think that all of us welcome the fact that the use of these drugs gives to some women who otherwise would not do so the opportunity to bear children.
§ VISCOUNT MASSEREENE AND FERRARDMy Lords, may I ask the noble Baroness whether the women who take these drugs are fully informed of the risks they may run in having, for instance, quintuplets or sextuplets?
§ BARONESS SEROTAYes, my Lords; without doubt.