Bitter Boys Don't Control IVF
- From: "Hyerdahl" <Hyerdahl3@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 13 Jul 2006 15:42:24 -0700
IVF hurdle for single women and lesbians to be overthrown
· 'Need for father' condition removed from rules
· Specific ban on gender selection will be made law
Sarah Hall, health correspondent
Thursday July 13, 2006
The Guardian
Fertility clinics and NHS trusts will no longer be able to stop single
mothers and lesbian couples having IVF treatment following a shake-up
of embryology regulation expected later this year.
The public health minister, Caroline Flint, yesterday gave the clearest
indication yet that a child's "need for a father" will be removed as a
requirement before a woman undergoes fertility treatment.
The rules will also be tightened to prevent parents from seeking to
chose a baby's sex to balance out their families, something not covered
by legislation. Sex selection will be allowed only for medical reasons,
such as to prevent the birth of male babies who may be affected by
haemophilia or Duchenne's muscular dystrophy.
The proposals, which could become law next year, emerged as Ms Flint
gave evidence yesterday to the Commons science and technology committee
on the proposed changes to embryology legislation. The Department of
Health has spent two and a half years reviewing the 1990 Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Act amid concern that such laws have
become out of date. At present, under section 13 of the act, doctors
need to consider the welfare of the child "including that child's need
for a father" before they agree to treatment. But the science and
technology committee, as well as the British Medical Association and
British Fertility Society, which represents fertility experts, oppose
this, arguing that it is discriminatory.
Although some clinics are willing to treat lesbian couples and single
women if it is evident the child will be born into a loving family,
others use section 13 to justify refusing treatment.
Cash-strapped primary care trusts (PCTs), which are supposed to give
infertile women one course of IVF but are finding themselves unable to
offer the three cycles recommended by the government's watchdog, Nice,
also use it as a means of rationing treatment.
Yesterday Ms Flint made clear the act would be amended to ensure that
fertility clinics and the NHS would treat women irrespective of whether
they had a male partner. "We are minded to retain a duty in terms of
the welfare of the child being taken into account, but we are thinking
there is probably less of a case for a retention in law to the
reference for a father.
"That does not mean fathers are not important. What's important is that
the children are going to be, as far as we know, part of a loving
family. We are considering whether the need for a father is something
we need to have," she told MPs.
She also indicated that the government was inclined to ban the use of
new techniques to allow parents to chose the gender of a baby. The 1990
act did not cover this, although regulations were issued in 2003
banning fertility experts from carrying out sex selection, other than
for medical reasons, in IVF treatment.
A loophole also means fresh sperm is not covered, and so samples used
in a form of fertility treatment called IUI (inter-uterine
insemination) and often bought on the internet, can be screened for sex
selection. "We do feel there should be a specific ban. I think on
family balancing, the problem is it is a slippery slope in terms of
people deciding one gender is more important than another," she added.
The proposals were welcomed by the British Fertility Society, which is
to tell doctors not to discriminate on the grounds that would-be
mothers do not have male partners. Allan Pacey, its president, said:
"She's right on-message ... there are still clinics out there that are
less broadminded than others."
Vishnee Sauntoo, spokeswoman for the Human Fertility and Embryology
Authority, said: "At the moment, some clinics are uncomfortable about
treating single women and lesbians ... If the law is clear, [they]
won't be as uncomfortable about offering treatment."
.
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