EMBRYO BILL DEBATE: DO FAMILIES NEED FATHERS?: The Guardian (UK)

Single women and lesbians hoping to be able to conceive can be excused if they felt slightly betrayed by a report in the Times yesterday that in the protracted flushing-out of principles that is the human fertilisation and embryos bill Gordon Brown might consider ceding the ground that matters most to them: being eligible for IVF without necessarily having to produce a father figure. The bill currently being debated in parliament retains the requirement in the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act that fertility clinics take account of the "welfare of the [potential] child", but replaces the requirement that they also consider a child's "need for a father" with the phrase "supportive parenting". The Conservative front bench is up in arms; the wording they would prefer, according to Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, would be "supportive parenting and a father or a male role model".

In the interests of preserving the bulk of the bill, and, in particular, the use of human-animal hybrid embryos -- which, Brown argued in the Observer over the weekend, have the potential to "save and improve the lives of thousands and, over time, millions of people" -- the Times report suggested that the prime minister may have already accepted defeat on this point.

Leaving aside, for the moment, whether or not Brown has, in fact, done this (sources close to the debate urge against jumping to conclusions, and it would be a surprising U-turn if he had), it is worth looking again at exactly what it would mean for single women and lesbians if the free vote went against the government today.

At its most basic, the rewording is simply a tidying-up exercise: recent anti-discrimination and human rights laws, and the Civil Partnership Act, make the wording of the 1990 act illegal, something that the current bill would rectify. "The difference between these two phrases is crucial," fertility law expert Natalie Gamble of law firm Lester Aldridge told the Observer last week. "The words 'supportive parenting' do not discriminate against single and lesbian women, but 'the need for a father' clearly does." Rewording would simply make the embryology bill consistent with all these advances.

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posted by Eve at 7:35 PM | link

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