Lesbian IVF under fire
Whether a father is needed for IVF treatment is under debate
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Monday, 19, Nov 2007 05:43
Children's need for a father should be taken into account when deciding if a woman should receive fertilisation treatment, it has been claimed.
Under the human fertilisation and embryology bill, to be debated in the House of Lords, it is proposed that the 'need for a father' is removed from what should be taken into account when IVF treatment is considered.
Baroness Ruth Deech, the former chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, said including the need for a father is "an issue of principle".
"The principle is that both sexes have a part to play in the upbringing of children," she told the Today programme.
"I know that plenty of children are brought up well without two parents but in an ideal world you need a mother, which is implicit in the law, and a father."
Baroness Deech added that her call for men to be included in IVF provisions is a "plea for the humanity of men to be respected".
"Just as women have fought for years to say our bodies are our own, we have personalities, we can say no, men are in danger under the current reproductive law, of being treated as no more than a sperm donor," she explained.
But speaking on the same programme Natalie Gamble, a solicitor who specialises in fertility law and who has two children with her female partner via IVF, said the reality of modern families needs to be acknowledged in law.
"I believe very fundamentally that children need a family and need role models of all sorts, and that different types of parents can give a very valuable contribution to a child's upbringing," she explained.
"What [the bill] is talking about is giving equal treatment to a small minority of same sex couples who are already conceiving using sperm donors. This debate about the change in the law that the government is proposing is being dragged into the wider debate about social breakdown and absent fathers."