The power to choose

摘要

It is almost inevitable in the UK that anyone who encourages the use of technology to help people choose the sex of their baby, or to make any other intervention in the "natural" reproductive process, is accused of playing Frankenstein - or, perhaps, God. And so it was with the recent report on reproductive technologies published by the House of Commons select committee on science and technology, which recommended a more liberal regime in embryo research and IVF treatment. The report - which a number of members of the committee disagreed with - suggested removing some of the layers of regulation set by the current 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. It gave two main reasons: that scientific advances are making that act obsolete; and that public opinion has become more relaxed in this area.