§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what action she has taken as a result of the publication of the report by the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority on the use of foetal ovarian tissue for research into Parkinson's disease and other afflictions.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's report relates only to the genetic material in ovarian tissue which might be used to treat women who are infertile or to produce embryos for 591W research. The Government have welcomed the authority's conclusions. Copies of the report have been sent by the authority to all research and treatment centres licensed under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.
Guidelines on the use of foetuses or foetal material for other purposes is set out in the report of the "Review of the Guidance on the Research use of Foetuses and Foetal Material"—the Polkinghorne report. This was distributed in 1989 to all health authorities and to private sector places approved under section 1(3) of the Abortion Act 1967. Copies of both reports are available in the Library.
§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for health (1) if she will make a statement setting out the reasons for her Department's policy in respect of the making available of alternative vaccines for parents who do not wish their children to be vaccinated with products manufactured using the tissue of aborted babies;
(2) upon what dates she received letters from the hon. Member for Congleton registering concern about the use in vaccines of tissue from aborted babies; and what action he took as a result of those warnings to ensure that alternative products were made available.
§ Mr. SackvilleA letter was received from the hon. Member for Congleton (Mrs. Winterton) on 7 October 1994 about the growth of rubella vaccine on a cell line derived from cells taken from an aborted foetus in 1966. All rubella vaccine is grown in this way and so no alternative can be made available. To develop rubella vaccine grown in an alternative cell line would require full safety and efficacy testing as this would be a completely new vaccine. Even if successful, this would take seven to 10 years.
Rubella and oral polio are the only vaccines in the childhood immunisation programme which are grown in human cell lines. Where there is an alternative vaccine source which is not grown in a human cell line, it can be offered. That applies to oral polio vaccine. For rubella vaccine, there is no alternative source.