§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have accepted the Polkinghorne Report, including Section 8, which implies that patients ought to waive property rights in cell lines cultivated from their cells, and if so on what grounds, and in whom such property rights are in future to vest.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Baroness Hooper)The Government have accepted the recommendations of the Polkinghorne Report, including those in Section 8. The legal position in this country in regard to the property rights in a cell line is uncertain. It is doubtful whether the mother of a fetus would have any right or ownership in respect of a cell line established from the fetal tissue, or in whom any such rights would be vested in the event of the mother agreeing to relinquish such rights as she may have.
1204WAthe Polkinghorne Committee considered, however, that the mother of a fetus should be asked to relinquish any property rights to a cell line established from the fetal tissue as the exercise of any such rights would be inconsistent with the principle that decisions about an abortion should be entirely separate from the subsequent use of fetal tissue.