Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, I seek the support of the opposition and the consideration of my colleagues to change the human cloning laws of 2002. There is no better reason than mitochondrial disease. The United Kingdom Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is now issuing licences for this very, very important condition. One in 5,000 babies and one in 200 adults live with the devastating and life-threatening potential of mitochondrial disease. Cells are the engine rooms of every body, mutations of which can lead to life-changing circumstances including intellectual and developmental delay, early death in the case of Leigh disease, liver, cardiovascular, eye and ear conditions, and, most importantly, loss of motor control, which can end work lives and require 100 per cent care at home.

To fix it, of course, requires one simple amendment to the Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction Act 2002 and the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002. This possibility did not exist in 2011, but today we know that if you live in the UK you have a chance to have your nuclear DNA implanted into normal mitochondrial donor eggs or fertilised eggs to have normal children. Let us give Rhonda Murray, who has already lost her mother and her brother to these terrible mitochondrial conditions, a chance to not pass this on to her daughters. Children can be born without these devastating consequences. We can do it, as the UK is already doing this year, through a tiny change to these laws.