The publication of the Warnock Report in July 1984 set in motion the sequence of parliamentary debate that formally established the legal status of embryo research in Britain. The passage of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act six years later brought this sequence to an end. In the present chapter, I shall provide a simple, chronological account of the main phases of parliamentary debate and of the lobbying and public discussion that influenced parliamentary debate. In subsequent chapters, I shall examine in detail the major processes underlying this sequence of events.

1984: Warnock rejected

The main recommendations in the Warnock Report with regard to embryo research were that such research should be allowed to continue, but that it should be restricted in scope as well as monitored and controlled by a body outside the research community. External regulation of embryo research was justified by reference to the need to protect the human embryos used for experimental purposes, the need to safeguard the public interest and the need to allay widespread anxiety. The report stated that the members of the committee were determined to prevent the ‘frivolous or unnecessary’ use of human embryos by those engaged in scientific research.

Leading figures in embryo research responded angrily to this section of the report, repudiating the suggestion that scientists might undertake experiments on human embryos without careful consideration of their moral implications and rejecting the notion that researchers had to be held in check by the threat of criminal prosecution.