October 25, 2013

expert reaction to the news of Lisa Jardine stepping down from HFEA

The HFEA announced that in January 2014 Lisa Jardine will be standing down as Chair.

Dr Mohamed Taranissi, Director of ARGC, said:

“I hope that when considering the next Chair of the HFEA the government will think long and hard about the kind of leadership that is needed in this sector. It would be tragic if the country where IVF was developed ended up falling behind the rest of the world because the regulator is too conservative and cautious to identify and support the remarkable new advances that are emerging in this field.  Too often it has felt like the HFEA is more preoccupied with process and form filling than supporting the fertility doctors and patients they represent.  What patients and doctors care most about is how to ensure that more infertile couples become parents. This means having a visionary leader who takes an interest in the medical advances that are improving success rates rates and ensures that these are tested, replicated and offered to many more patients. We need someone with vision who will put the patients at the centre of the HFEA’s ambitions for the future.”

Professor Peter Braude, Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, King’s College London, said:

“The role of the HFEA chair is never easy, requiring strong leadership, diplomacy in dealing with highly charged controversies in assisted reproduction, as well as a breadth of knowledge to deal with the law, parliament, and government departments, whilst above all ensuring sympathy and understanding of the wishes and needs of those who need fertility treatment.  Lisa has been able to fulfill all these admirably whilst bringing her fresh approach as a scientifically minded historian. Her successor will have an even tougher job in dealing with new areas where stem cell therapy, germ line modification, and reconstructed gametes will all feature in the years to come.”

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, Head of Developmental Genetics, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, said:

 “Lisa Jardine has been a fabulous person to have at the helm of the HFEA during some rough and interesting times. During her tenure the HFEA has, quite rightly in my view, survived the massacre of the quangos and a second attempt to merge it with the HTA. She has overseen a number of changes, including a physical relocation of the Authority offices, a streamlining of personnel and the appointment of a new very effective CEO. And done all this while the HFEA has carried on its usual business of regulation in sometimes contentious areas of clinical practice and research – albeit with the wonderful aim of allowing women and men to have healthy children when accidents of biology have made this difficult or impossible.

“Lisa will be leaving before we know whether the change in regulations to permit the clinical application of mitochondrial replacement will be approved by Parliament. These methods are essential to allow women who carry a high proportion of abnormal mitochondrial DNA in their eggs to have children free from a devastating set of diseases. But some find it contentious because it involves the use of eggs or early embryos donated by another women to provide normal mitochondria such that the latter replace the faulty ones in any child born, and if a girl, in her children. I know from my involvement that Lisa applied her qualities of intelligence, fairness and enthusiasm to ensure, from the top, that the consultation into the methodology and its potential application were conducted by the HFEA in a way that was both inclusive and thorough.

“The HFEA needs another strong leader to help keep this particular process on track – the methods have public support and there are strong scientific and clinical reasons for them to be applied. But a strong and adaptable leader will also be essential to deal with all the other new challenges that are bound to crop up in a field of science and clinical practice that moves so fast. We need another Lisa Jardine, but reproductive cloning is not permitted by the HFEA and, of course, she herself would not want it to be. This is all part of getting the balance right, which Lisa has been superb at doing.”