The opponents of new technologies are always saying things have been rushed, as they did with fracking last week. It\u2019s the last refuge of the person who wants to oppose something but has seen all his arguments shot down. And the change in the law will not create a free-for-all but merely allow clinicians to apply to the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA) for a licence. So each case will be scrutinised and approved by scientists, lawyers and ethicists, who are more competent to do so than your average MP.<\/p>\n
Ever since Baroness Warnock\u2019s pioneering report on embryo research in 1984, Britain has regulated advances in genetics and embryology by having parliament set the overall ethical and social tone, then devolving the detail to the HFEA, an approach that is internationally admired. The church is effectively asking parliament to be a regulator of medical research and practice.<\/p>\n
Shockingly, I understand that Doug Turnbull, the Newcastle University scientist leading the mitochondrial research, had not once been invited by the archbishops\u2019 council \u201d\u201d which advised the Church of England on this decision \u201d\u201d to present his case to them before they issued their fatwa against mitochondrial donation.<\/p>\n