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Health and Sport Committee 07 May 2019

07 May 2019 · S5 · Health and Sport Committee

Item of business

Human Tissue (Authorisation) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

FitzPatrick, Joe SNP Dundee City West Watch on SPTV

The amendments would remove a protection from the bill. The bill as introduced includes an exemption to ensure that deemed authorisation does not apply to excepted body parts and includes provision for regulations to be made to specify what is included in the excepted body parts category. Those regulations will be subject to affirmative procedure as well as to consultation. The intention, as outlined in the Scottish Government’s consultation, is for deemed authorisation to apply only to those organs and tissues that are commonly transplanted. They are, in other words, the organs and tissues that most people might commonly understand as being able to be donated and include the kidney, heart, lungs and liver. The intention is for body parts aside from those commonly transplanted ones—in other words, the excepted body parts—to be listed in regulations and, as a result, to be exempt from deemed authorisation. That approach has been taken elsewhere; indeed, there are regulations as part of the Welsh legislation that set out that list. As well as that exemption, deemed authorisation will apply only to transplantation, not to research—again, that comes back to a point that Mr Balfour made—and no body parts can be used for research purposes without explicit authorisation. Amendments 9 and 10 seek to remove the category of excepted body parts and instead set out protections only for parts of the body that contain “reproductive cells” or which are “to be used for reproductive purposes”. The effect would be that those parts of the body that it is intended would be excepted could be removed and transplanted under deemed authorisation. I point out to Mr Balfour that I am very much a supporter of organ donation and, indeed, have opted in to make it clear that I am content for all of my body parts to be used after my death, if I die in such circumstances that they can be used. However, the bill does not assume that that would be covered by deemed authorisation, if the organ in question is not one of those accepted as commonly transplanted. There is a slight difference in that respect, and I think that it highlights how the organ donor register remains important in this legislation. As I have said, there is a list in Wales, and it includes body parts such as the face and hands. I do not think that it is commonly understood by the public that such parts of the body would be donated and transplanted, and it is appropriate that we provide safeguards to make the limitations of deemed authorisation clear to the public. I understand Mr Balfour’s concerns with regard to reproductive cells and body parts to which deemed authorisation for transplantation does not apply. As I have said, the Government’s intention is to ensure that only material that the public commonly understand to be routinely donated should be part of deemed authorisation, and I do not think that the material that the amendments relate to would fall within that. The list in Wales includes the types of material that the amendments relate to, such as the ovaries, uterus, penis and testicles. Subject to consultation and the Parliament’s view, it is expected that the list of excepted body parts here will be very similar. I suggest that the excepted body parts regulations are the vehicle to limit the parameters of what can be donated under deemed authorisation. On that basis, I urge Jeremy Balfour to withdraw amendment 5 and not to move the other amendments in the group. Mr Balfour asked how reproductive cells will be covered under the bill. The procurement, storage and use of gametes, or reproductive cells, are dealt with under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 and require a Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority licence. That is completely separate from the 2006 act and the bill.

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Health and Sport Committee 07 May 2019

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