Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology / Chairman: Dame Mary Warnock, DBE.
- Great Britain. Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology
- Date:
- 1984
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology / Chairman: Dame Mary Warnock, DBE. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![treatment when she has herself, at an earlier stage, been steri- lised at her own request. Perhaps because of a new marriage, she now very much wants children. The question may be raised whether, if she has children, albeit from another marriage, she should be eligible for infertility treatment. Again, a woman who has had a child may subsequently become infertile. Opinions may be divided about whether she should be eligible for treat- ment. | 2.9 Furthermore, the various techniques for assisted repro- duction offer not only a remedy for infertility, but also offer the fertile single woman or lesbian couple the chance of parent- hood without the direct involvement of a male partner. To judge from the evidence, many believe that the interests of the child dictate that it should be born into a home where there is a loving, stable, heterosexual relationship and that, therefore, the deliberate creation of a child for a woman who is not a partner in such a relationship is morally wrong. On the other side some expressed the view that a single woman or lesbian couple have a right under the European Convention to have children even though those children may have no legal father. It is further argued that it is already accepted that a single person, whether man or woman, can in certain circumstances provide a suitable environment for a child, since the existence of single adoptive parents is specifically provided for in the Children Act 1975.' 2.10 In the same way that a single woman may believe she has a right to motherhood, so a single man may feel he has a right to fatherhood. Though the feminist position is perhaps more frequently publicised, we were told of a group of single, mainly homosexual, men who were campaigning for the right to bring up a child. Their primary aim at present is to obtain in practice equal rights in the adoption field, but they are also well aware of the potential of surrogacy for providing a single man with a child that is genetically his. ‘There have been cases in other countries of surrogacy in such circumstances. It can be argued that as a matter of sex equality if single women are not totally barred from parenthood, then neither should single men be so barred. | 2.11 We have considered these arguments, but, nevertheless, we believe that as a general rule it is better for children to be born into a two-parent family, with both father and mother, 1 Section 11 of the Children Act 1975 1]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32220789_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
