Procreative Autonomy and the human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008: Does a Coherent Conception Underpin UK Law?

Abstract

In the twenty years since the enactment of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, rapid and radical developments in reproductive technologies have created new options for procreation. Legislation passed in 1990 was no longer adequate and the HFE Act 2008 was designed to update the law in the United Kingdom, a country at the forefront of the reproductive revolution. Reviews, documents and developments that formed the background for the new Act, gave rise to expectations that it would take a principled approach and had the potential to recognise the principle of procreative autonomy. Examining the provisions on cloning, sex selection, ‘designer babies’ and ‘saviour siblings’, this paper argues that in the event, no such principle underpins the Act. While procreative autonomy is not an all or nothing account, I find that both, provisions expanding treatment services and those restricting procreative choice, are based on pragmatic grounds incompatible with the principle. This pragmatism, I conclude, does not provide the coherent approach that the UK might have hoped for.