HC Deb 01 April 1985 vol 76 cc420-1W
Mr. Nicholas Winterton

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what resources are being made available through the Medical Research Council to finance its voluntary monitoring committee on human embryo research.

Mr. Brooke

The voluntary licensing authority for human in vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer has been set up jointly by the Medical Research Council and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. I understand from the MRC that the resources it needs to finance the authority will be found from within the council's grant-in-aid. It is still too early to estimate with any accuracy what the cost will be, but it is likely to be modest.

Mr. Nicholas Winterton

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the members of the voluntary monitoring committee on human embryo research set up by the Medical Research Council.

Mr. Brooke

I understand that the full membership of the voluntary licensing authority set up jointly by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) is as follows:

  • Chairman: Dame Mary Donaldson, CBE.
  • MRC Nominees: Anne McLaren, DPhil, FRS — Director, MRC Mammalian Development Unit.
  • Sir Douglas Black, MD, FRCP — Formerly Professor of Medicine, Manchester University. Formerly Chief Scientist, Department of Health and Social Security. Past President of the Royal College of Physicians.
  • Professor G. S. Dawes, CBE, DM, FRCP, FRCOG, FRS—Director of Nuffield Institute for Medical Research, Oxford.
  • Dame Cicely Saunders, DBE, FRCP — Founder and Medical Director, St. Christopher's Hospice.
  • RCOG Nominees: Professor M. C. Macnaughton, MD, FRCP (Glas), FRCOG, FRSE — President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Glasgow University.
  • Professor R. W. Shaw, MD, FRCS, MRCOG — Professor Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London.
  • J. D. 0. Loudon, MB, ChB, FRCSE, FRCOG — Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Edinburgh. Chairman, RCOG Ethics Committee.
  • Professor W. Thompson, MD, FRCOG — Professor of Midwifery and Gynaecology, Queen's University, Belfast. Chairman, RCOG Fertility Committee.
  • Joint MRC/RCOG Nominees: Penelope Leach, PhD, DipSocSci — Social Psychologist, Journalist, Broadcaster, Author.
  • Rev. Professor G. R. Dunstan, FSA — Formerly Professor of Moral and Social Theology, King's College, London. Chaplain to the Queen. Member, RCOG Ethics Committee.
  • Sir Cecil Clothier, KCB, QC — Formerly Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration. Formerly Health Service Commissioner for England, Scotland and Wales.
  • Susan Hampshire — Actress, Authoress, Executive Committee of Population Concern.
  • Secretary: K. I. Gibson, PhD—Medical Research Council Headquarters Office.