THE EARL OF ARRANMy Lords. I beg leave 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 facilities are freely available in the National Health Service for prospective parents to ascertain their respective blood groups and, if so, whether they will encourage their use in order to reduce the number of mentally and physically handicapped children born to parents with incompatible blood groups.
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords. blood grouping facilities are available in the National Health Service as needed, and they are provided when considered necessary by a doctor. It may be that the noble Earl has in mind incompatible blood groups of prospective parents which may cause haemolytic disease in the baby which, if untreated, could lead to physical and mental handicap. The blood grouping of pregnant women is already determined routinely as part of ante-natal care to identify those at risk of producing a baby affected by this disease. Women identified as at risk of producing an affected baby and who are considered suitable are given, after confinement or abortion, an injection of Anti-D immunoglobulin to reduce the risk of the disease occurring in a future baby.
THE EARL OF ARRANMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, who went much further than I had hoped he would. May I ask Her Majesty's Government to encourage research into the possible advantages to parents, and to the unfortunate children, of whom there are many thousands, in the hope of reducing human unhappiness?
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, this is a complicated matter, as many of your Lordships will know, and I think it would be difficult for me to go into it in the time normally taken up by Question Time. About 5 children in 1,000 are born with haemolytic disease of the newborn, leading to about 200 deaths per annum. It will perhaps be of considerable interest to the noble Earl to know that a memorandum of guidance for 797 doctors on haemolytic disease of the newborn is currently under revision by the Standing Medical Advisory Committee. Perhaps I can take this opportunity to tell the noble Earl and your Lordships generally that there is in being a service known as genetic counselling, which means that parents needing advice on the likelihood of their having a child with inherited disease can obtain advice from their family doctor, who can, if need be, refer them to a specialist genetic counselling centre. I think this probably meets the concern of the noble Earl.
§ LORD SLATERMy Lords, would not my noble friend agree that the health centres that have been set up throughout the country are doing a wonderful service in regard to that part of the National Health Service covered by the Question of the noble Earl to my noble friend; and that the advice that parents receive, on a clinical basis, so far as their children are concerned is, so far as I know, adequate? My information is that they are doing a valuable service, and I hope that service will continue.
§ LORD PLATTMy Lords, while agreeing with the replies of the noble Lord the Minister, and while sympathising with the aims of the noble Earl, may I ask whether Her Majesty's Government would not agree that there are a large number of cases of congenital and hereditary diseases which could not be detected by this determination of blood groups and that there are numerous marriages of people with incompatible blood groups which do not give rise to any trouble at all? Would he further inform us as to whether clinics for genetic counselling are now available in every region in the country? I think they nearly are, but I should like to know whether the Minister can give us the information.
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, as the noble Lord says, this is a complicated matter. I am not sure whether every district in fact has a genetic counselling service. My recollection is that there are quite a number of them, but they are not as widespread as I think we should like them to be. I am sorry, but I have forgotten the first point that the noble Lord raised.
§ LORD PLATTMy Lords, my first point was simply whether Her Majesty's 798 Government agreed that of course there are many cases which could not be detected by the simple determination of blood groups. But the more important question was about the genetic counselling clinics.
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, this is one of the reasons why I made it clear at the beginning that this is such a complicated matter that I hoped I would not be expected to go into it, but the noble Lord is perfectly right.
§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILLMy Lords, would my noble friend agree that, even in those areas where there are genetic clinics, they are ineffective unless wide publicity is given to the whole question?
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, that is perfectly true, but I did point out that this matter is being reviewed by the Standing Medical Advisory Committee. We hope that, when the memorandum of guidance for doctors is available, attention will be drawn to the existence of these genetic counselling centres.