By Marie Woolf and Sophie Goodchild
Published: 02 July 2006
Excerpted from The Independent:
"Fertility clinics are to be told to provide IVF treatment to all women, even when they do not have a male partner, under radical reforms backed by MPs.
A powerful coalition of MPs from all parties will call tomorrow for the scrapping of a legal requirement that clinics consider "the need for a father" when assessing whether to offer IVF.
MPs will publicly demand a change to the law which they say discriminates against single women and lesbians. Government sources indicated yesterday they will look again at the legal requirement, introduced under the last Tory government, which says a child's "need for a father" must be considered when women apply for IVF.
The change in the law, to be discussed on the floor of the House of Commons, is backed by expert bodies including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Association of Social Workers, which want the child's need for a father to be replaced by "the need for a family"."
My first reaction was that of surprise that single women and lesbian couples could not until this point access IVF in what I guess are public / govt clinics, as I know of women in the UK already trying. I guess they have been using private clinics. My second reaction is that I am guessing this will put added strain on the already diminished access to donor sperm in the UK. And that I find disheartening.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
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Single women can undergo IVF in NHS (government) hospitals, but only as private, paying patients.
British couples are entitled to one free try of IVF if the woman is under forty, but not all NHS hospitals provide this.
The NHS paid for my IVF drugs this cycle, but not the treatment. That's because the drugs are available as a prescription at the discretion of the GP. And my GP likes me.
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