Current Bioethics Issues – Summer 2025

Scotland, England, and Wales votes for assisted suicide

On 13 May 2025, the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill passed by 70 votes to 56 in the Scottish Parliament. This Bill would allow terminally-ill, mentally competent adults to seek help to end their lives through assisted suicide. This ‘Stage 1’ vote was on the general principles of the Bill which would need to clear two more stages of parliamentary scrutiny to become law, which are expected to take place between September and October 2025.

Similarly, on 20 June 2025, the Terminally Ill Adults Bill, which would cover England and Wales, was accepted in the UK Westminster Parliament by 314 votes to 291. This has a similar remit to the Scottish Bill in seeking to legalise assisted suicide in certain circumstances. The Bill will now go to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.

UK House of Commons votes to decriminalise self-abortions until birth in England and Wales

On 17 June 2025, and after less than two hours of debate, MPs voted by 379 votes to 137 in support of an abortion up to birth amendment to the government’s crime and policing bill. This is the first time, in many years, that such a significant abortion amendment has been accepted in the House of Commons. Unfortunately, no consultation with the general public on this law change took place.

The amendment seeks to modify the law so that it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason, including sex-selective purposes, at any point up to (and during) birth. This is likely to lead to an increase in the number of women performing dangerous late-term abortions at home. Medical Abortions can take place up to 34 weeks, though the experience is both painful and traumatic for the woman who has to discard the foetal remains herself.^[1] This amendment will now be sent to the House of Lords for further discussion.

All newborn babies in England will have their complete DNA decoded

NHS in England has indicated, on 21 June 2025, that every newborn baby born in England in the next 10 years will have their DNA completely decoded using blood samples from their umbilical cords, taken shortly after birth. The resulting DNA biobank would then be used to assess the risk of hundreds of diseases under a government drive towards predicting and preventing illness by providing faster diagnoses and an early warning signal for disease. The UK Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, indicated that gene technology would enable the health service to ‘leapfrog disease, so we’re in front of it rather than reacting to it’. Government funding for the new initiative would give England one of the world’s largest research databases, with the goal of containing the complete DNA of over 500,000 persons by 2030.^[2]

However, the information (which is likely to be stored forever) could also be considered for other uses. For example, with such a large number of study participants, coupled with modern computing power, it could enable polygenic traits, such as certain forms of intelligence, sporting abilities, and even good looks, to be better identified. This could then be considered for future eugenic selection of children.

In addition, a judge could still overrule any commitments to confidentiality of the study to solve a crime if police find biological material at a crime scene. However, DNA analysis is not infallible; technical limitations, such as contamination, degradation of samples, or errors in sequencing, can lead to inaccurate results. Furthermore, human bias in interpreting DNA evidence or managing the database could introduce errors or misuse, potentially implicating innocent individuals or relatives whose DNA partially matches crime scene samples. Concerns also exist that, if an undemocratic regime came into being, it would facilitate the identification of its opponents if their biological cells were found in certain places.

No other country in the world has followed NHS England in such a project, and, unfortunately, very little discussion is taking place in England relating to the risks of establishing such a genetic data bank.

Creating human-nonhuman living beings considered to be offensive to human dignity in Europe

A decision by the European Patent Office Board of Appeal on 4 September 2024 was able to provide some important guidance on the interpretation of European Law in the context of creating living human-nonhuman combinations.^[3] The decision considered the patentability of human-animal chimeras (organisms containing cells from humans and animals). This indicated that a patent application that includes methods of integrating human cells into the brain and reproductive cells of chimeras is offensive to human dignity.

The case related to the possibility of creating pigs with humanised organs for transplantation, but the Board of Appeal concluded that the process for making such pigs should be excluded from patentability since a realistic probability exists that human cells may be found in their brains or reproductive cells. Interestingly, researchers from the USA were reported (in June 2025) to have been able to create chimeric mice with human neurological cells in their brains.^[4]

In the UK, the creation of such human-nonhuman chimeras has already been legalised provided a licence is obtained under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (if the living being is ‘assumed’ to be human) or under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (if the living being is ‘assumed’ to be nonhuman).^[5]

UK Supreme Court ruled that sex means biological sex

Five judges of the UK Supreme Court ruled unanimously, on 16 April 2025, that the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the UK Equality Act 2010 only relates to a biological woman and to biological sex. In other words, the terms did not include transgender women who hold Gender Recognition Certificates. The case was brought by the gender-critical campaign group For Women Scotland. It is expected that the decision may have significant ramifications, including greater restrictions for trans-women accessing services and spaces reserved for women.^[6]

However, the Supreme Court decision did not clarify how biological sex was to be defined especially in cases of disorders of sexual development (intersex conditions). This is a general term used to describe persons who may have biological attributes of both sexes in their bodies.

UK Government has postponed proposed updates to 40-year-old surrogacy legislation

In a letter to the Law Commission of England and Wales in April 2025, the UK health minister, Baroness Merron, has indicated that the Government is unable to prioritise surrogacy reform and do not intend to put forward such a legislative proposal at the current time. In the UK, surrogacy is regulated by the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985 and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, but the Law Commission of England and Wales published a joint report with the Scottish Law Commission in 2023, proposing comprehensive reforms (and liberalisation) of surrogacy law.

It should also be noted that a motion in the Scottish Parliament was also lodged, on 7 April 2025, calling for a complete prohibition of surrogacy on ethical, legal, and human rights grounds.^[7] Countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have already rejected surrogacy as incompatible with the protection of women’s rights and dignity. Indeed, the Spanish Supreme Court has recently indicated that all surrogacy contracts, even those conducted abroad, are invalid under Spanish law. Italy has classified all forms of surrogacy as a universal crime.^[8]

Dr Calum MacKellar is affiliated to the Centre for Bioethics and Emerging Technologies at St Mary’s University in Twickenham, London. He is also a member of the United Free Church of Scotland in Edinburgh

Footnotes:

^[1]  In June 2023, Carla Foster was sentenced to 28 months in prison for terminating a pregnancy between 32 and 34 weeks. She had obtained pills supplied in good faith, after a remote consultation during lockdown.
Hannah Al-Othman, MPs vote to decriminalise abortion in step forward for reproductive, The Guardian, 17 June 2025, rightshttps://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/17/decriminalisation-abortion-vote-mps

^[2]  Maia Davies, NHS plans to DNA test all babies to assess disease risk BBC News, 21 June 2025, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1ljg7v0vmpo

^[3]  T 1553/22 (Human-pig chimeras/UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA) 04-09-2024; https://www.epo.org/en/boards-of-appeal/decisions/t221553eu1

^[4]  Joanne Delange, Mice, pigs and humans: chimaera research at the ISSCR conference, 23 June 2025, BioNews 1294, https://www.progress.org.uk/mice-pigs-and-humans-chimaera-research-at-the-isscr-conference/

^[5]  Calum MacKellar and David A. Jones, Chimera’s Children, London – New York: Continuum/Bloomsbury Academic, 2012.

^[6]  Severin Carrell, Legal definition of woman is based on biological sex, UK supreme court rules, The Guardian, 16 April 2024.

^[7]  https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/votes-and-motions/S6M-17076

^[8]  Rachel Amery, Calls to ban surrogacy in Scotland over ‘ethical, legal and human rights’ concerns, The Scotsman, 14 April 2025.