HC Deb 19 June 1990 vol 174 cc516-7W

Now that continuation of research on the early human embryo has been agreed by a Committee of the whole House of Commons, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is being considered in detail by a Standing Committee in the usual way. At its first session the Standing Committee discussed an amendment which, if accepted, would have brought the GIFT procedure under the control of the Statutory Licensing Authority. The view of the Council of your College, which you kindly provided for me last month, was made available to members of the Committee. There was a lengthy debate which, of course, was reported in Hansard (copy enclosed). You will see that the concerns expressed about GIFT related entirely to the possibility that it can result in triplets or higher order multiple births, just as could IVF, if too many eggs are replaced. However, as I explained, such multiple pregnancies also result from the use of superovulatory drugs alone in the treatment of infertility. To introduce legislative control of GIFT for this reason would thus point to a need to regulate superovulatory therapy in general which would indeed take us well on to the slippery slope of wider regulation of medical practice—something which in the long run would not, it seems to me, to be to the advantage of patients or doctors. As you will see, the Committee rejected the amendment, but in view of the concerns expressed about the difficulties which may be experienced by women carrying and giving birth to triplets or more, I promised to write to you to ask that the College give consideration to ensuring that its Fellows and Members are fully aware of the Parliamentary concerns about high multiple pregnancy. The problems associated with this have been well documented in recent research by Frances Price of the Child Care and Development Group in Cambridge, whose research has been supported by the Department and which will be published by HMSO soon. Clearly it would be most reassuring to those members of Parliament who have expressed concern about triplets and higher order multiple pregnancies resulting from infertility treatments if the College were prepared to convey this concern, perhaps with some advice, to its Fellows and Members.

Re: Multiple Pregnancy Resulting from Infertility Treatment Thank you very much for your letter of 14th May regarding the concern of the Members of Parliament about procedures such as GIFT resulting in higher order multiple births. As you know, the Council of the College has on occasions discussed this and felt that regulation of procedures such as GIFT will not only set a precedent in terms of regulating medical practice but also that, as these forms of treatment are still evolving, any framework regulating the current practices may restrict further development. Therefore we feel that GIFT and similar procedures should not be included in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. I think your point that legislative control of GIFT could also lead the way to regulating other treatments for infertility, such as the use of gonadorophins for ovulation induction, is extremely important. We have in the past relied on the ILA, which as you know evolved from the VLA set up by the RCOG and the MRC, to issue guidelines to those of our Fellows and Members involved in the management of infertility patients where treatment such as IVF and GIFT were provided. The College would certainly be willing to reinforce this advice by circulating guidelines to Fellows and Members. We are now working on these and they will cover the following areas: counselling, the use of gonadotrophins in induction of ovulation, number of embryos or eggs to be transferred and other matters relating to the practice of GIFT. Once the Bill receives Royal Assent these will be put in their final form and circulated. I look forward to receiving as soon as possible a copy of Frances Price's paper.