A number of Irish couples seeking to have children without a genetic disorder have successfully done so by availing of reproductive services overseas, a Dáil committee was told yesterday.
Prof Andrew Green, professor of medical genetics at UCD and director of medical genetics at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, told the joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children that pre-implantation genetic testing is often something sought by couples considering having a child after already losing one to a genetic disease. However, pre-implantation genetic testing is not available in the State.
Consequently, couples are travelling to the UK, where there are a number of centres licensed to carry out the testing, as well as to other centres across Europe. Prof Green said this resulted in "a number" of couples living in the State ending up having a child not affected by a condition to which they had lost another child.
Prof Green also told the committee that the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology had data indicating three-quarters of those who had been seeking pre-implantation genetic testing were older women trying to rule out having children with chromosomal disorders.
Prof Green is one of the members of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction, which, after four years of deliberation, published its report earlier this year.
One of the main recommendations of the report was the setting up of a statutory regulatory body to oversee all aspects of assisted human reproduction.
Others included allowing the donation of sperm, ova and embryos, surrogate motherhood, assisting unmarried and same-sex couples to have children, and allowing certain restricted forms of research on embryos, under licence.
The commission's recommendations have been passed by the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, to the Oireachtas committee for consideration. It will prepare its own report on the way forward and members have already travelled to Italy to see the situation there.
Several members of the commission, including its chairwoman, Prof Dervilla Donnelly, were before the Oireachtas committee yesterday.
One member, Dr Deirdre Madden, said there was no evidence Irish clinics provided surrogacy services but there were anecdotal reports of Irish families travelling to the US to avail of those services.
Studies indicated that only in a small percentage of cases did the surrogate mother want to keep the child after it was born. There had been no such cases in the Republic and one could only speculate, she said, that if such a case came before the Irish courts the likelihood was the woman who gave birth to the child rather than "the commissioning couple" would be found to have the legal right to the child.
Committee chairman John Maloney said there was a belief the committee had to have its report ready by April but this was not the case. He did not say when it would be ready.
He said one of the most glaring things from the report was that there were several clinics operating across the State providing assisted human reproduction services, and there was no regulation of them whatsoever. But up to 8,000 people used their services every year and about 1,000 babies were born as a result.
There were no guidelines on what should happen to surplus embryos or on staff qualifications, he added.
Liz McManus, Labour spokeswoman on health, said it was "untenable" that the area was not regulated.