Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990

An Act to make provision in connection with human embryos and any subsequent development of such embryos; to prohibit certain practices in connection with embryos and gametes; to establish a Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority; to make provision about the persons who in certain circumstances are to be treated in law as the parents of a child; and to amend the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985. The 1990 Act established the HFEA as the UK's statutory regulator of fertility treatment and human embryo research. It introduced licensing requirements for any clinic offering in vitro fertilisation, donor insemination, embryo storage, or human embryo research. The Act created criminal offences for unlicensed activity and prohibited certain practices including placing a non-human embryo in a woman, keeping or using an embryo after the appearance of the primitive streak (interpreted as 14 days post-fertilisation), and replacing an embryo's nucleus. The HFEA was empowered to keep a register of identifying information about donors, recipients, and people born from licensed treatments, and to issue a Code of Practice. Sections 13 and 14 set out treatment licence conditions including welfare-of-the-child considerations and consent requirements.