Legislation, Deafness and Reproductive Rights.  Comments on Clause 14 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

5th February 2008

Excerpt from article:

“The real issue here is not designer babies, but reproductive liberty, which includes the right of the potential parents to select intact embryos created from their own unaltered genetic material for implantation. If passed with the above wording, the Bill would make it illegal for a deaf adult to donate gametes for IVF (they must not be ‘preferred’ to a hearing person) and one would assume this includes donating to their close relatives. It would also make it illegal for deaf parents, using PGD, to implant embryos with the genes for deafness if there are available ‘hearing’ embryos (the deaf embryo must not be ‘preferred’ to a hearing one).”

• Full article on the BioNews website

Blankmeyer Burke T, Belk R, Middleton A (2008) Legislation, Deafness and Reproductive Rights.  Comments on Clause 14 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.  Bionews.  Progress Educational Trust.  5 Feb 2008