Institute of Continuing Education (ICE)
Politics have played a more significant part in the regulation of reproductive medicine than is commonly recognised. Starting with the media and parliamentary reaction to the birth of Louise Brown in 1978, to the contemporary parliamentarians' struggle to keep the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) as an integrated body, legislators, clinicians, religious authorities and journalists have competed to seize direction of the way in which this law and regulation develops.
Fortunately, stem cell work in this country was legalised in 2001, in part because of the confidence in regulation generated by the existence of the HFEA and in part because of the thoroughness and secular nature of the debate. This has not been the case in the USA, even though President Obama has been slightly more accommodating than Presidents Bush and Clinton. Britain remains a leading nation in stem cell and reproductive medicine, but this position is threatened by misguided attempts to cut expenditure on quangos. Rearranging the regulatory body will not in fact save money but risks the accountability and security of this field.
Baroness Deech taught law at Oxford University (specialising in family and property law) until she was elected Principal of St Anne’s College (1991 to 2004). She was chair for 7 years of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, a national committee charged with regulating assisted reproductive treatments and embryo research, and oversaw the legalisation of stem cell research. She was a Governor of the BBC (2002-2006) and a Rhodes Scholarships Trustee (1996-2006). She was called to the Bar and is an honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple.
From 2004 to 2008 she was the first Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education for England and Wales, the national campus ombudsman for 147 universities. In 2008 she was appointed Gresham Professor of Law, London, and in 2009, became chair of the Bar Standards Board, regulating barristers, their training, conduct and practice. In 2009 she completed a report for the Department of Health on Women Doctors – Making a Difference.
She was created a life peer in 2005 and sits in the House of Lords as a non-party legislator. She is a member of the Lords Communications Select Committee which considers the media and the creative industries.
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