§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations she has received about the effects of IVF treatment on the health of mothers and children; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. SackvilleSince 1994, Ministers have received four letters on the subject.
The summary of "The Report of the Medical Research Council Working Party on Children Conceived by IVF" by Pat Doyle and Valerie Beral, was published in the British Medical Journal, BMJ 1990, 300: 1229–33. The study showed that the numbers of malformations found were consistent with the range of expected values in national data on congenital malformations.
From 1988 the interim licensing authority for human in-vitro fertilisation and embryology, and from 1 August 686W 1991 the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority have kept registers of IVF treatment, including records of developmental defects in babies conceived as a result of treatment. These have not shown untoward rates of abnormality.