Parliament to start debating IVF changes next week with Fearne expecting final vote before summer recess

Xtra on TVM News Plus | Health Minister Chris Fearne says pre-implantation genetic testing of embryos will help prospective parents with a family history of serious disease to have healthy babies

Changes proposed to the IVF law will introduce PGT testing for monogenetic disorders
Changes proposed to the IVF law will introduce PGT testing for monogenetic disorders

Government intends to close the legislative process that will introduce genetic testing of embryos before the summer recess, Chris Fearne said.

Pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT) is a key part of the amendments unveiled last week by the Health Minister to the law regulating in-vitro fertilisation. Other amendments widen accessibility to IVF and give prospective parents a greater chance of success.

PGT will be used to test embryos produced through IVF for serious hereditary diseases and conditions. This will enable doctors to implant only healthy embryos in the woman’s womb, while defective ones will be frozen rather than discarded.

Speaking on TVM News Plus’ Xtra, Fearne said the discussion in parliament on the proposed amendments will kick off next week and government intends to have the legislation approved before the summer recess.

I have witnessed stories that break your heart and now that science is giving us the possibility of avoiding these circumstances, why should we not offer prospective parents the chance to have a healthy baby? Chris Fearne

Reacting to the criticism of PGT made by several pro-life groups, including church organisations, Fearne said he could not understand their position.

Pro-life organisations have claimed embryo selection through PGT, “does not deliver a ‘healthy baby’ but provides a tool to enable the selection of which baby will live and which baby will be frozen in perpetuity.”

But Fearne was unfazed by the criticism, insisting that as a paediatric surgeon he has lived through experiences of having to tell parents that the baby that has just been born will only live for a few days or weeks because of some serious genetic disease.

Fearne said: “I have witnessed stories that break your heart and now that science is giving us the possibility of avoiding these circumstances, why should we not offer prospective parents the chance to have a healthy baby? I simply cannot understand the position of these critics, who were against IVF 10 years ago and then against the changes we enacted in 2018. If it were up to them, today we won’t have more than 400 children who were born through IVF.”

Fearne said that changes to IVF legislation, including the ethically-contentious genetic testing, were a key election pledge made by the Labour Party. “We have an electoral mandate to introduce these changes,” he said.

Although government has published the legal amendments to the IVF law, clinical and medical details as to eligibility for PGT testing and which diseases will be tested have yet to emerge. These will be included in a protocol drawn up by the Embryo Protection Authority.

Fearne has pledged to publish the protocol by the time the Second Reading in parliament starts so that all aspects of the changes can be debated.

The minister said that once the law is approved, government will kick off the procurement process for new equipment and laboratories so that PGT could be offered at hospital.

He said that in one year more than 900 individuals were granted permission by the regulator to undergo some form of IVF treatment.

“I am in politics to make a difference in people’s lives and there is no greater satisfaction than having a woman come up to me and telling me that she is a mother as a result of IVF, which was made possible by the legal changes we introduced,” Fearne said.