ABSTRACT
In relation to the regulation of assisted reproduction in the United Kingdom (UK), Margaret Brazier has very insightfully observed that ‘all too often crucial issues of individual rights, the balance between rights and public policy, and issues of conflicting rights are skated over’. 1 This might well be thought to be true of the construction of the welfare of the child clause of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act 1990 (as amended by the HFE Act 2008), which stipulates that ‘[a] woman shall not be provided with treatment services unless account has been taken of the welfare of any child who may be born as a result (including the need of that child for supportive parenting)’. 2 Despite being amended, the clause retains a controversial and contested status in the regulation of assisted reproduction treatment. 3
