MPs reject need for father in IVF
- From: "MCP" <gf010w5035@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 06:19:49 +0100
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7410934.stm
MPs have voted to scrap laws forcing clinics to consider the need for a
"father and mother" before allowing women to seek IVF treatment.
Iain Duncan Smith led the cross-party bid, saying the absence of a father had
a "detrimental effect" on a child. His plan was defeated by 292 votes to 217.
Currently, IVF clinics have to consider the "welfare" of any child created,
including the need for a father.
But the government wants the focus instead on "supportive parenting".
MPs also opposed a further bid to ensure there is a "father or a male role
model" before fertility treatment, by 290 votes to 222.
The issue of the role of fathers in IVF comes in the second day of committee
stage debate of the controversial Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill,
aimed at updating laws from 1990.
'Empathetic love'
Later MPs will debate and vote on whether to cut the 24-week upper limit for
abortions to 20 weeks or less.
Ex-Tory leader Mr Duncan Smith led the charge to keep the status quo in
conditions for IVF treatment - that the need for a father, and a mother, is
considered.
"On the whole the absence of fathers generally has a detrimental effect on a
child, and it's the vast majority that are going to be a positive influence -
if they are connected to that family," he said.
He said the influence of a father figure was as important for daughters as it
was for sons.
"It is more often from the father that those young girls learn about
empathetic, non-conditional love - that it's possible to have a relationship
that doesn't have to involve sex," he said.
Labour ex-minister George Howarth asked if he accepted that there were bad
fathers who can "have a bad influence in some circumstances" - to which Mr
Duncan Smith said he did.
Lib Dem science spokesman Evan Harris asked: "Do you consider lesbian couples
to be broken families? And if you do, what evidence to you have that the
children of those families are going off the rails?"
'Direct discrimination'
Mr Duncan Smith said he did not consider them broken families. "I hope, like
everybody else, we would want any such relationship to prosper and the child
would benefit."
He said he did not know of any gay or lesbian couples who had been refused
treatment under the current rules.
But Labour's Emily Thornberry said the Birmingham Women's Hospital insisted
couples needed to be in a heterosexual relationship for two years.
"That's direct discrimination against lesbian couples and against single
women," she said.
Tory shadow health minister Mark Simmonds said Human Fertilisation and
Embryology Authority guidelines were not allowed to refuse treatment on the
basis of sexual discrimination.
Labour's Geraldine Smith, who backs Mr Duncan Smith's stance, said: "It's
nonsense to suggest that we shouldn't take into account the need for a father.
"We are not suggesting that single women or lesbians do not have IVF
treatment - the only thing we're saying is there's a father figure somewhere.
"It's just pure common sense."
But Tory veteran Sir Patrick Cormack insisted: "We should not, out of a
misguided concept of equality or fairness, pretend that there is an automatic
right for anyone to have a child, regardless of sex.
"A child that is deliberately brought into the world with no desire that there
should be a man or a woman who is the parent is brought in with a
disadvantage."
'Saviour siblings'
However, Health Minister Dawn Primarolo insisted that the legislation "should
be for all people that seek treatment, whether in a same sex couple, single
women or heterosexual couples".
"It's clear that if the need for a father was retained, the legislation would
place additional burdens on single women and same sex female couples.
"There is no evidence or suggestion to say that these women do not make good
parents - that these women somehow make bad parents and therefore should be
required to do additional steps."
She said the important issue was the "welfare of the child". "It's the quality
of the parenting that makes the most difference, not the gender of the parents
as such."
On Monday, MPs voted down a cross-party attempt to ban hybrid human animal
embryos.
Roman Catholic cabinet ministers Ruth Kelly, Des Browne and Paul Murphy voted
for a ban, while Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron
both opposed it.
A bid to ban "saviour siblings" - babies selected to provide genetic material
for seriously ill relatives -was also voted down.
.
- Prev by Date: Re: California Gay Marriage: A State In Irreversible Decline
- Next by Date: Fathers officially inconsequential
- Previous by thread: UK Mirror: Shock as paternity tests reveal different dads
- Next by thread: Fathers officially inconsequential
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
