The Government is adopting a dangerous course of action by allowing clinics for assisted human reproduction to operate without providing legislation to regulate them, a medical law specialist warned yesterday.
The warning came as an IVF clinic to use donated female eggs began operation. The J. Marion Sims clinic in Rathgar, Dublin, has been advised by a senior counsel that its service is both legal and constitutional.
However the medical law specialist, Ms Deirdre Madden, warned that to allow IVF procedures to be carried out in the State in the absence of a legislative framework was very dangerous.
"The Government has a responsibility to deal with this," she said.
A representative of the Department of Health and Children said the Minister, Mr Cowen, would bring a proposal to Cabinet on the matter in the near future.
The Minister was aware of the many legal, ethical and medical principles at stake and his officials were considering them.
The Government voted down a Bill by the independent Senator, Dr Mary Henry, in July.
A consultant gynaecologist at the new clinic, Dr Tony Walsh, said 20 couples were already seeking the service. He expected that 30 per cent of the women who received the IVF treatment would have babies.
The clinic is now appealing for women donors. They would be compensated for any expenses but would not be paid for their eggs.
Couples anxious to have children were currently travelling to Britain, where they faced two-year waiting lists for the IVF treatment, Dr Walsh said.
Following legal advice, donors will be required to sign a contract renouncing their legal right to any children born as a result of the treatment.
However the Fine Gael health spokesman and specialist on family law, Mr Alan Shatter, warned that in the absence of legislation paternity remained potentially the most controversial principle at stake. There was no precedent in Irish law for determining if the judiciary would enforce any contracts entered into by the donor at the time of the donation, he said.
The procedure had the potential to replicate the controversy created by contraception in the 1970s and 1980s. Mr Shatter understood that there were already couples living in this State who had received this IVF treatment in Britain and subsequently gave birth to children in Ireland.
"We need to ensure we do not have an increasing number of children born as a result of donations, whose status and family relationship are undefined," he said.
Ms Madden believed that legislation would have to address such matters as whether the donor should remain anonymous, should be paid, what records should be kept of these treatments, and by whom.
In Britain records were kept by a central authority which could be contacted at a later date by children born as a result of IVF treatments, to ensure they did not marry relatives of a donor.
Dr Walsh said they would keep careful records and would be willing to hand these over to a central authority if required.
Dr Henry said there was no legislation, although IVF treatments involving donated sperm had been provided in Ireland for more than 10 years.