This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast discusses proposed changes to the law governing fertility treatment and embryo research.

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Peter Thompson (Chief Executive of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority)

⚫ Venessa Smith (Quality Manager for the Assisted Conception Unit at Guy's Hospital)

⚫ Dr Rachel Gregoire (Scientific Director of the Hewitt Fertility Centre)

⚫ Dr Kay Elder (Senior Research Scientist at Bourn Hall Clinic)

⚫ James Lawford Davies (Partner at Lawford Davies & Co)

Following its consultation on proposed changes to the law, the UK's fertility regulator – the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) – is due to submit recommendations for law reform to the UK Government.

The main law that governs fertility treatment and embryo research – the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act – was originally passed in 1990, and was last given a thoroughgoing update in 2008. There are many respects in which this law fails to meet the present and prospective needs of patients, practitioners, researchers, regulators and others.

The HFEA structured its consultation around the following four themes.

⚫ Patient safety and promoting good practice (including reference to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review and the Women's Health Strategy for England).

⚫ Access to donor information (including reference to the impact of direct-to-consumer genetic testing on the identifiability of sperm/egg/embryo donors, and the identifiability of donor-conceived people).

⚫ Consent (including reference to situations where problems with and disagreements about consent have had to be resolved in court).

⚫ Scientific developments (including reference to regulatory 'sandboxes' as discussed by the Regulatory Horizons Council, and to the latest guidelines published by the International Society for Stem Cell Research).

This discussion begins with an overview of the consultation, presented by the Chief Executive of the HFEA. Experts and practitioners in fertility treatment, embryo research and related law then exchange ideas about how to reform the law in this area.

PET is grateful to Merck for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.