Labour to extend nanny state with fatherless babies in IVF fertility revolution

A child's need for a father will no longer be a consideration when a woman seeks fertility treatment, ministers will say this week. The move which comes despite widespread public opposition and which will give single women and lesbians the right to treatment forms part of a shake-up of Britain's embryology laws. One of the key proposals would allow research on test-tube embryos that were part-human, part-animal referred to as "chimeras".

The changes, which ministers say have "fundamental social, legal and ethical aspects", are set out in a Department of Health "command paper" seen by The Sunday Telegraph.

Homosexual couples will have the same parental rights as heterosexuals and, for the first time, all parents will be banned from choosing the sex of their baby for non-medical reasons.

However, embryos will be able to be screened for genetic abnormalities "which may lead to serious medical conditions, disabilities or miscarriage".

Screening will also be expressly permitted to identify a "tissue match for a sibling suffering a life-threatening illness", but the document rules out "family balancing" and adds that most people surveyed in a consultation exercise believed "this should not be a matter of choice open to parents".

The creation of combined human-animal embryos under licence will be popular among stem-cell researchers, including a team from the North East England Stem Cell Institute, which has submitted plans to create a human-cow chimera embryo. However, it will be bitterly contested by reproductive ethics campaigners who brand such ideas "abhorrent".

The aim of the shake-up is to bring the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act into line with scientific advances and to make sure the law is "fit for purpose in the early 21st century". Caroline Flint, the health minister, claims in her foreword: "The over-arching aim is to pursue the common good through a system broadly acceptable to society."

She proposes doing away with the current regulatory bodies, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the Human Tissue Authority, and replacing them with a Regulatory Authority for Tissue and Embryos (Rate). Some medical advances will be outlawed, including the possible creation of a child by combining genetic material of two women, which would render males redundant altogether.

However, the law obliging clinics to consider a child's "need for a father" is to be scrapped – despite backing from the public for the present system. However, the need to take account of the "welfare of the child" before treatment is given will stay.

Robert Whelan, the deputy director of Civitas, the institute for the study of civil society, criticised the plans to give single mothers the right to fertility treatment.

"It is grossly irresponsible to deliberately bring a child into the world in circumstances which will leave it at a disadvantage," he said.

"The people who engage in this sort of activity see children as an accessory and something they can have as a right. The fact that the child will suffer is secondary."

In other changes, private companies which provide sperm to women over the internet will be regulated for the first time and charities and other non-profit-making organisations will be able to advertise surrogacy services.

Another change will affect storage of embryos. This can currently be done for five years as long as neither parent withdraws consent.

The Government proposes extending this period to 10 years and also to introduce a one-year "cooling-off period" where an embryo can still be stored if one parent withdraws consent.

The paper, expected on Friday, will set out the Government's plans ahead of a draft Bill next year.

Taken from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=3F4NWVCKW10VVQFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2006/12/10/nivf10.xml

Labour's IVF policies have been in tatters for years as they unfund, dither and meddle around the edges.

On Feb 01, 05 Health Direct noted that the Labour Government pledge on IVF in tatters as units fail to cope with demand as thousands of couples desperate to become parents will not receive free fertility treatment, despite a government pledge to offer at minimum of one cycle on the National Health Service.

An investigation by The Independent on Sunday can reveal that fertility services in England and Wales are in crisis, with some NHS trusts refusing to supply any treatment for certain couples.

In what has been described as a "shambles" by critics of the Labour Government, some cash-strapped trusts will be unable to provide any treatment by the April deadline set a year ago by John Reid, the Secretary of State for Health, while others will be forced to reduce the level of treatment which they already offer.

And again earlier this year: Sept 14, 06- IVF donor sperm crisis revealed as NHS fails couples
when almost 70% of fertility clinics either have no access to donor sperm, or find it extremely difficult to obtain, a BBC survey suggests. Two thirds of IVF clinics have trouble getting the sperm they need. Specialists say infertile patients are becoming desperate and more resources are needed for campaigns aimed at recruiting donors.

Fifty of the clinics surveyed said they either had no sperm or insufficient supplies. Many reported waiting times of at least six months for couples needing donor sperm, and some were having to turn patients away.

The secretary of the British Fertility Society, Dr Allan Pacey, said: "We are certainly in a crisis at the moment - most clinics are finding it difficult to get enough sperm to treat their patients.

The obvious question is why is Labour social engineering when those apparently most appropriate to bring up children are being denied by their costs cuts?