Rites of Passage: Discursive Strategies in the 2008 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill Debate

Abstract

The transformational impact of the ideational turn in political science has been profound, but academic inquiry into the role of discursive strategies has remained limited. This article examines this issue through a study of the 2008 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. The debate surrounding the Bill was characterised by two competing discourses of ‘hope’ and ‘fear’. Established during previous debates over the regulation of research using human embryos, these contrasted the potential medical benefits to be derived with the social and ethical dangers of an unregulated science. This article deconstructs these discursive strategies and considers their impact on both the course of the debate as well as the mechanics of the Bill's passage through Parliament itself. It maintains that discursive and institutional contexts are mutually constitutive.