Grim News for Assisted Reproduction Regulatory Bodies in Canada and the UK

Posted by Jillian Theil December 1, 2010
Biopolitical Times
Earlier this year, the UK government announced a sweeping reform bill that will dismantle several quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the regulatory body which oversees assisted reproductive technologies, is one of the many agencies slated for the axe.

During last month’s reading of the UK Government’s Public Bodies (Reform) Bill in the House of Lords, members discussed rethinking the abolition of the HFEA. The HFEA’s future remains dim however, as the Lords’ powers are limited to delaying bills and recommending amendments.

Baroness Warnock, a driving force behind the HFEA’s creation, pleaded for its preservation, calling it a “highly specialist body that offers a form of protection against exploitation to a group of highly vulnerable people who are trying and failing to conceive.” Other members agreed, questioning the agency’s proposed elimination, while drawing attention to the careful deliberations that established it in the first place.

Meanwhile in Canada, a Parliamentary committee recently held hearings about questionable performance by the chair of the Assisted Human Reproduction Agency of Canada (AHRAC). Like the UK HFEA, long deliberations were a central component of the regulatory body’s careful creation; legislation which established the agency was considered a landmark improvement in the oversight of reproductive technologies, making the AHRAC’s widely acknowledged shortcomings all the more bitter.

During the meeting, former board members testified against Dr.  Elinor Wilson, head of the AHRAC. They alleged that the agency has failed to serve its original intent by funding research contrary to its aims, undermining its governing statute. Former AHRAC board member Françoise Baylis of Dalhousie University also accused the board of “excessive, unnecessary secrecy that undermines the public trust,’ while Barbara Slater claimed that Wilson resisted board member input on matters of substance.

Independent investigations into the agency itself have also been ordered. Its apparent failure is a regrettable development in the regulation of assisted reproduction.   

Previously on Biopolitical Times: