Section 13(9) and the 2008 HFE Act: the position of human rights in regards to the prohibition on screening in for disability

Abstract

Law in relation to assisted reproduetive technologies is an immensely complex area of law; it is the pinnacle of where bioethics, human rights and science collide. Assisted reproductive technology, such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), is wrought with tensions between the need to provide some limitations on what is acceptable and the desire of parents to take control of their reproductive choices. Within the United Kingdom, the Hitman Fertilisation and Embryology Act l 990, as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 200S (the HFE Act) provides these legislative limits under which PGD is available to individuals. However, in recent years some of the prohibitions seen within the HFE Act have been viewed as problematic, particularly from a human rights perspective. The purpose of this research was to examine the position of human rights in regard to Section 13(9) of the HFE Act, which expressly prohibits the use of PGD to screen in disabilities. This was accomplished through a rights-based and bioethics based analysis of some of the most complex issues surrounding Section 13(9) seen throughout the 2008 reform. Primarily, this work found that bioethics is the central consideration used when regarding the development of this provision, and human rights was a peripheral consideration at best. It was then argued that both human rights and bioethics should play a distinct, but central roles in developing law in relation to assisted reproductive technology. This was coined, a ‘concurrent approach.' It was demonstrated how a concurrent approach that centres both human rights and bioethics in relation to Section 13(9) would have provided fora more flexible approach to the provision, than a total prohibition. This would have recognized the complexities in this area of law and the non-binary nature of life and assisted reproduction. As technology and society progress, we open our eyes to the fact that reproduction does not just allow one to decide to reproduce, it allows for some decision making in how we reproduce and what kind of children we may have. In turn, this helps for the legislation to be more adaptive to the fast-paced, ever changing social and technological landscape that surrounds assisted reproductive technology.

Date of Award	Dec 2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Stephen Kuntz (Supervisor)