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This report considers counselling service requirements and related issues that may need to be addressed from 2008 when people will first be entitled to request information from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority Register. The report is the result of a two year project set up by BICA and funded by the Department of Health, the Scottish Executive and the Bruce Trust.

Opening the Record contains a range of recommendations on the delivery of counselling to people applying to the Register for information and others who may be affected by such an application. The report also considers the counselling implications should donor anonymity be lifted in the future, the counselling provision for donors and recipients in licensed treatment centres and the needs of people conceived via donor treatment prior to the establishment of the HFEA Register in 1991.

*The report as reproduced here has been amended. The published version contains reference to the Register opening in 2007 and to the counselling needs of those conceived prior to 1990. Although the HFE Act is 1990, it did not come into force until 1991 so in effect the Regulations allowing people to make enquiries will not apply until 2008.

Download the full report and executive summary here: as pdf (300k) or plain text.