Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 182: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if experimentation on human embryos is a specific offence here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30703/07]

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.

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 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 and the Commission published its report in May 2005. Its report was the first step in determining a policy response to Assisted Human Reproduction (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 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 developing an appropriate regulatory framework for this area (including the issue raised by the Deputy), the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children -when completed- along with any judgement of the Supreme Court in the RvR (frozen embryo) case, will be taken into account.