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20 July 1994

Dear Inspector

1. HFEA Annual Report 1994

2. Public Consultation on the Use of Donated Ovarian Tissue in Embryo Research and Assisted Conception

Annual Report 1994

I enclose a copy of the Authority's third Annual Report which has been published today. The Annual Report gives details of the Authority's activities over the past year and provides data on the outcomes of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and donor insemination (DI) treatments for 1992.

This has been another busy and interesting year for the Authority and for licensed centres. It is a year which has seen significant developments in assisted conception. Such developments are exciting but they also generate intense interest from the media and public, and they do demand careful thought and consideration from all of those who are involved in this field, in whatever capacity.

The Annual Report provides us with an opportunity to offer a considered analysis of the issues that we have faced. I hope you will find that it does so in an informative way.

Public Consultation on Donated Ovarian Tissue

Also enclosed is a copy of the Authority's report on the outcome of its consultation on the use of donated ovarian tissue and a copy of the Press Release which we issued today.

As you know the Authority published a consultation document entitled "Donated Ovarian Tissue in Embryo Research and Assisted Conception" in January 1994. We are very pleased with the scale of the response that we received. In all we issued some 25,000 copies of the document, and we received over 9,000 responses from individuals, organisations, schools, religious and community groups, professional bodies, licensed centres and many others. This far exceeded our expectations and affirmed our belief in the importance and value of public consultation on issues of this sort. We have been impressed with the quality of the responses.

As you will see from the enclosed report, the Authority has concluded that it is not acceptable for fetal ovarian tissue to be used in the treatment of infertile women, and that ovarian tissue from cadavers should not be used in treatment.

The Authority also agreed that it is acceptable for tissue from all of the sources referred to in the consultation document to be used in licensed research, subject of course to existing licensing requirements.

The Authority's reasoning is set out in the report, together with an analysis of the responses and details of the kind of arguments that were put forward by respondents. I hope you find this interesting and helpful. I would be happy to receive any observations that you may have on the consultation process and on the Authority's decisions. While we have reached a number of conclusions, this does not represent the end of the debate, and there are several aspects of it which still need long and careful consideration.

The members of the Authority are most grateful to those of you who made submissions on the consultation, all of which were fully considered. We are also grateful, as ever, for your continuing commitment in the inspection of licensed centres.

Yours faithfully

Professor Sir Colin Campbell
Chairman

Page last updated: 15 August 2012

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