Furthermore, it was judged that mere market forces would never have spontaneously led to the setting up of such a programme, given the size of the technological and commercial risks involved and the critical mass required to carry out such an ambitious RD project.

Implicit in this are the right of men and women to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of fertility regulation of their choice, and the right of access to appropriate health care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant".

However, all credit to Mr Skinner for finally managing to complete it.

We will not always be able to do this but when the opportunity allows I believe we should take it, for it would do this House no harm whatsoever if the debates were to become more spontaneous and political than is usually the case.

To help you understand what is meant by the expression ``new reproductive technologies'', I will give you a list of a few activities which were carried out and are still being developed because the government's moratorium is only ``voluntary'': contracts in which surrogate a mother is paid to carry a child she will give up to her customers after delivery; trade in human ova, sperm and embryos; child gender selection for non medical reasons; free in vitro fertilization for women who cannot afford it in exchange for ova; alteration of the genetic material of an ovum, sperm or embryo and its transmission to a subsequent generation; exp ...[+++]eriments on bringing babies to term in artificial wombs; duplication or cloning of human embryos; production of human and animal hybrids; use of ova retrieved from cadavers or foetuses to give birth to babies or for research purposes.