Fate of frozen embryos rests with ethics board

Frozen sperm, eggs or embryos collected before 2004 will have to be destroyed in 2014 unless a special ethics committee gives permission for them to be kept longer.

The Human Assisted Reproduction Technology (Storage) Amendment Bill which is due before the health select committee today clarifies the rules around storage of gametes (sperm and eggs) and embryos.

Under previous legislation, embryos and gametes can be kept for 10 years, but the starting point for the 10 years has been open to interpretation.

Justice Minister Simon Power says it had always been intended to be from November 2004, the date from which the originating act, the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2004, took effect or from when storage began, which ever was the later.

The Government had received legal advice that some clinics could be breaching the act by keeping embryos or gametes longer than 10 years.

Not passing the bill could force clinics to destroy all human gametes and embryos stored for more than 10 years or leave the clinics open to legal challenge.

The number of people affected is not known but Mr Power did not think it was many. The bill before the select committee will also clarify the roles of two committees.

Once the bill is passed, the only way to get an extension on the 10 years will be to get the permission of the Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology, appointed by the Health Minister.

The guidelines that the ethics committee should use in making its life and death decisions will be set by the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology.

The original bill was taken through Parliament by former Labour Hamilton-based MP Dianne Yates and it supports the clarifying bill.

The Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell admitted to feelings of discomfort and awkwardness around the issue.

The party supported the bill to a select committee but has not yet decided whether to support it beyond that.

Storage debate:

"The Government is providing comfort to those people who have made life decisions that are premised on their having access to their stored gametes or embryos."

* Simon Power, Justice Minister

"It should be up to the people from whom the in vitro gametes and embryos came from to decide how long they should be stored for and what they should be used for, including what happens in the event of their death. Such vital issues of survival should not be left to the realms of an ethics committee to decide."

* Te Ururoa Flavell, Maori Party