Williamson Maurice: Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill — Recommittal In Committee Third Reading Procedure 
Williamson Maurice: Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill — Recommittal In Committee Third Reading Procedure 
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Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga) 
: 
 I want to take the call tonight because I have a very personal involvement in this matter. My wife and I found ourselves many years ago unable to have our own children. After a significant diagnosis of the fact that the Dalkon shield had ruined our chances of having children we tried to go through a number of scientific programmes. We went to the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne we tried with Freddie Graham at the National Women’s Hospital and we spent a lot of money at the private clinic in Remuera. After a number of trials we were unable to have our own children. 
The best thing that ever happened is that we were able to adopt. We have three of the greatest kids there are simply because some other people were prepared to allow us to adopt those children. I want to stress to members in the House tonight that they can have simply no idea of the suffering created for people who would desperately love to have their own children and who will spend whatever and try whatever and cannot. We are just so grateful to the birth mothers of our kids. 
Our kids know without doubt. In fact the best notice that we ever had from the Department of Social Welfare was that the children must never find out that they were adopted; they must always know. They must always know from the day that they can understand. Our three kids are the twins who are now 6 and Simon who is 14 and is part-Japanese. He knows his birth mother Michiko with a passion. They will spend some more time together next week but every year they spend time together. She comes to New Zealand or he goes to her and we have no feelings of any insecurities or concerns. Our children are our children but we know that we needed help to get them there. 
I guess the greatest concern that I have in this country is the number of people who end up pregnant and for whom it is simply the last thing they needed to have happen. They may be very young insecure or have no family assistance. All I can say is that when we drive from Auckland to Pauanui most weeks we see a wonderful sign opposite the Maramurua golf course that says: “Adopt don’t abort.” If I had any advice to give people about this whole reproductive cycle if it is possible—and I know that sometimes it is not; I am not opposed to abortion and I am very libertarian and believe that there will be times when people want abortion—and if there is a chance for people to make that choice and let someone else share in the life of that young child could they please consider adoption rather than abortion. 
I say to this House that there are also some technologies that will unwind over the years that we have not even thought of yet. There are already the gamete intrafallopian transfer programme and gamete fertilisation outside it. I did not even understand when we first started off that “in vitro” meant “in glass”. I thought in vitro was some wonderful technology but it turned out to be “in glass”. Our first experience at the Royal Women’s Hospital was amazing. The medical staff asked me whether I would like to be in the theatre while they did the egg pick-up. They had a long needle which nearly made me pass out. It was on a big vacuum pump and they could squeeze it. They had the ultrasound and they were spotting where the eggs were. After about an hour of unbelievable sweat torture and pain and finally picking up I think six on our first go—which we were very proud of—the nurse passed me the little plastic cup and said: “It’s your turn.” I did not even think that I could raise a mortgage at that point let alone anything else. 
It is terribly dehumanising and it is terribly difficult for human beings to work through but let me just put in a bid on behalf of those who cannot have children to do anything we can do to assist within the bounds of reason. I simply do not agree with part-man part-donkey or any of the other part-human and part-animal clones and all of those other things which is what this stuff is aimed at and I agree with Dianne Yates on that. However we should be very careful not to limit the way in which some technologies may allow us to assist. As a member of the Infertility Society I met some of the most staggering people who would make the best parents and who simply had nothing but love to give to some children but who were being denied that right. As we pass this legislation and I am very happy for it to be passed we need to be very cognisant of those people and the fact that over the years this Parliament will be tested on legal moral and ethical issues that make that able to happen.