We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ensure the safe and continued storage of embryos whose statutory storage period has expired when the HFE Act 2008 comes into force on 01 October 2009. This is in line with recommendations from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. We ask that the Government bring forward further regulations as a matter of urgency to allow for the continued storage of such embryos for those who desire it, in order that they may have a family by means of surrogacy where there is the medical need. We also petition the Prime Minister to act immediately to suspend the destruction of such embryos where the gamete providers so wish.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 came into force on 1 October. The Act extended the statutory storage period for embryos from five to ten years, but a small number of women reached the five-year embryo storage limit before that date. These women intended to use their embryos with a surrogate and it was not possible for this group to benefit from extended storage beyond the statutory limit under the previous system.
The Government recognised that this could prevent these couples from having a much-wanted, genetically related child. It was announced in September that the Government would make an Order to allow this specific group of embryos to remain in storage for ten years, from the date they were put into storage. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Supplementary Provision) Order 2009 came into force on 1 October.
The Government also made a further set of Regulations, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Statutory Storage Periods for Embryos and Gametes) (Amendment) Regulations 2009, which clarified that this group of embryos may also benefit from the extended storage periods set out in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Statutory Storage Periods for Embryos and Gametes) Regulations 2009.
Provided they fulfil the criteria set out in the Regulations, which includes the requirement that one of the gamete (sperm and egg) providers or the intended recipient are prematurely infertile, storage may be extended for further periods of ten years to a maximum of 55 years.
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