Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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At present there is no legislation in Ireland governing the intervention in the natural process of creating human life; instead, medical practice is governed by guidelines issued by the Medical Council. These provide that the creation of new forms of life for experimental purposes or the deliberate and intentional destruction of in vitro human life already formed is professional misconduct.

I am advised that, whereas stem cell research holds potential for the treatment of illnesses such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's disease, and spinal cord injury, scientific research using embryonic stem cells is still at a very early stage.

The legal, ethical and medical appropriateness of any research that would involve the use of cells from embryos will be among the matters examined in the context of the development of an appropriate regulatory framework for Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) services in Ireland.

In March 2000 the then Minister for Health and Children established the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction (CAHR). Its terms of reference were:

"To prepare a report on the possible approaches to the regulation of all aspects of assisted human reproduction and the social, ethical and legal factors to be taken into account in determining public policy in this area."

The CAHR was comprised largely of persons with expert knowledge spanning medical, scientific, social and legal domains. This expertise was a prerequisite to a precise examination of the issues concerned.

The Commission published its report in May 2005. Its report was the first step in determining a policy response to AHR and it made 40 recommendations on AHR services in Ireland.

The Government decided to refer the report to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children so that the Committee could consider and report in due course on its views of the recommendations of the Commission. The Committee was considered an appropriate forum in which to subject the report to structured democratic and political analysis and scrutiny.

In the meantime, cognisant of the amount of work required, I have instructed my Department to begin work on the development of an appropriate regulatory framework. As part of the analysis of the complex issues involved in Assisted Human Reproduction, the views of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, along with any judgement of the Supreme Court in the RvR Frozen Embryo case will be taken into account.