Ireland needs to have proposals in place by April of next year for regulating the donation and storage of human reproductive tissue, according to the chairwoman of the commission set up to examine these issues, writes Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent
Prof Dervilla Donnelly was speaking at a press conference yesterday to launch the report of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction, set up by the then minister for health, Micheál Martin, in 2000.
It was asked to prepare a report on the possible regulation of all areas of assisted human reproduction, and on the social, ethical and legal factors to be taken into account. The Cabinet agreed to the publication of the report at its meeting last Tuesday, and has sent it for discussion to the Oireachtas committee on health.
Asked how long she expected the political deliberations to last before there was legislation, Prof Donnelly pointed out that there is an EU directive aimed at setting standards for the donation, testing, processing, storage and distribution of human tissue, including reproductive tissue.
This directive requires that all member states make arrangements to comply with it by April 7th next year. One of the provisions is the setting up of a competent authority to implement the provisions of the directive.
One of the main recommendations of the commission report is the setting up of a statutory regulatory body to oversee all aspects of assisted human reproduction. Others include allowing the donation of sperm, ova and embryos, surrogate motherhood, assisting unmarried and same-sex couples to have children, and allowing certain restricted forms of research on embryos, under licence.
Prof Donnelly said she had no doubt the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, would not allow the report to languish. "I don't believe she will allow it to disappear into the long grass. She is not that kind of person," Prof Donnelly added.
Ms Harney yesterday welcomed the publication of the report. "The issues examined by the commission are clearly difficult and emotive for many people," she said.
"Some of the issues it examined go to the core of our concepts of human dignity and personhood. However, the commission approached its work from the standpoint that assisted human reproduction is a positive development in reproductive medicine. It offers the possibility of parenthood to involuntarily infertile people.
"I am pleased that the best interests of the child born through assisted human reproduction were fundamental in the commission's priorities throughout its deliberations," said Ms Harney.
In a preliminary response to the report, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, said some of the recommendations seemed to be in conflict with the guiding principles of Catholic teaching.
"Those principles stress that marriage, that intimate union between a man and a woman, is the natural institution to which the transmission of life is exclusively entrusted and that human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception."
The Pro-Life Campaign accused the commission of adopting an extreme position. It expressed concern at its proposed "destruction of vulnerable human lives through research on human embryos".
"The commission has shown complete disregard for human rights by proposing that no legal protection should be afforded to unborn human life outside the womb," said Dr Berry Kiely, its spokeswoman. She said the commission had squandered a unique opportunity by failing to prioritise adult stem cell research as a way of treating certain diseases.
"Ireland should undertake to play a pioneering role in this area, with a view to becoming an internationally acclaimed centre of excellence for adult stem cell research," she said.