Ethics, Embryos and Evidence: A Look back at Warnock and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Acts Event

The law in England and Wales concerning embryo research, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, is considered by many countries to be a model to be followed in outlining their own embryo research legislation. The Act permits embryo research within a defined set of limits, thereby taking a controlled but permissive stance.

Although the legislation carefully controls the research which is undertaken with human embryos, there are many opponents of embryo research who would like to see such work outlawed. This paper examines how the UK legislation come to take such a permissive stance in an area which still raises controversy and around which there is a vast range of diverse ethical opinions. In order to determine how the legal stance that the UK currently has towards embryo research was reached, this paper examines the path to legislation, subsequent reform and considers how diverse ethical opinions were taken into account.