Winston attacks fertility body

Leading fertility expert Lord Winston today launched an attack on Britain's embryology watchdog.

The pioneering scientist said the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) was "incompetent" and in need of a "far-reaching shake-up" to ensure research into fertility and stem cells did not get out of

control. Lord Winston told

Radio 4 the body's "shocking mismanagement" of recent issues, including "designer babies" born to help a sick sibling, had led him to speak out.

The HFEA regulates and inspects all clinics providing IVF, donor insemination or storage of eggs, sperm or embryos.

It also licenses and monitors all human embryo research.

About 8,000 babies are born in the UK each year after fertility treatment but there has been mounting concern about long-term health effects.

A study which looked at three million normal conceptions and 40,000 IVF babies found the latter were two and a half times more likely to have a low birth weight. Small babies are more likely to develop vascular disease, diabetes, hypertension and osteoporosis.

Lord Winston, one of the pioneers of IVF, was speaking after previously accusing the medical establishment of conducting a "mass experiment" on parents who are desperate for children and calling their babies "human guinea pigs".