Josephine quintavalle biography

Who has brought the case and why?

Pro-life campaigner Josephine Quintavalle was challenging whether the HFEA had the right to make a highly-contentious decision about a pioneering embryo technique.

The HFEA granted a licence to a clinic to treat a family called the Hashmis with a technique called "embryo selection".

The Hashmis hoped that they might be able to have a child whose umbilical cord stem cells could be used to treat their son Zain.

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He has a disease called beta thalassaemia which, in theory, could be cured with the cord cells from a baby whose tissue exactly matched his own.

To improve the chances that such a child is born, Mrs Hashmi wanted to have IVF in which only matching embryos were implanted in her.

IVF procedures fall under the auspices of the the HFEA.

What did the HFEA do, and under which powers?

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The HFEA, after considering the case, gave permission for the Hashmis to go ahead.

The HFEA is a "quango", set up to regulate fertility clinics by the government.

As such it is given certain powers to make decisions about techniques that clinics can use.

This application was made in a similar vein to dozens of applications from clinics about variations in the way they approach fertility treatments.

Why does Josephine Quintavalle object?

Josephine Quintavalle, and the group she represents, Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE), object fundamentally to the idea of embryo selection.

They do not feel it is morally justified to create large numbers of embryos, pick some, and discard others - essentially a central component of any IVF treatment.

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However, in this case, they objected because the HFEA had made the decision internally, without much public consultation.

They said that highly contentious decisions on ethics should not be made without reference to public opinion as a whole.

They believe that decisions of this type, should be made through Parliament.

What does the win mean?

The immediate impact of the win is fairly narrow.

It is still uncertain whether it will mean that the Hashmis, who have yet to succeed using embryo selection techniques, will be prevented from having any more attempts.

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The HFEA, which plans an appeal, is certainly prevented from taking any similar decisions on controversial licence applications until that is sorted out.

It is likely, that if the ruling stands on appeal, that the HFEA will, at the least, have to reform its public consultation processes to make its decisions more publicly accountable.

At the most, the role of the HFEA will have to be redefined by the government through legislation which states exactly which decisions it is allowed to make, and which have to be referred back to its Parliamentary masters.

Many in the HFEA are in favour of a new embryology Act which recognises the advances in science since the last Act in which have opened such difficult ethical arguments.