Originally published August 22 2005
New criteria required for IVF applicants in the UK
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Times offers a review of possible discrimination through current screening of IVF applications in Britain.
RULES that require couples to be deemed responsible parents before being offered IVF treatment stand to be eased under a review of Britain's 15-year-old fertility legislation.
The Government is considering removing or watering down the requirement that clinics take into account the welfare of children that may be born before infertile patients can be treated.
At present, doctors must take "reasonable steps" to ensure that prospective parents will provide a "stable and supportive" family environment for any offspring, as well as weighing any medical issues that might put children at risk.
In a consultation document on the future of fertility regulation issued yesterday, ministers acknowledged that these checks are widely regarded as time-consuming and expensive, discriminatory against the infertile and of limited value.
Critics of the system argue that the professional duty of fertility doctors requires them not to perform procedures that are unnecessarily risky, and that the welfare of the child rules create needless bureau-cracy for little benefit.
The rule is inconsistently applied, clinics often have difficulty conducting background checks, and many feel it is unfair to patients, who would not face similar intrusion were they capable of conceiving a child through natural means.
"There are some difficulties because people can go out and conceive naturally and we don't get involved in that debate about their ability to be good parents."
This has been attacked by Suzi Leather, the chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), as a nonsense and some lawyers consider it illegal under human rights legislation.
The review aims to update the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, which is generally felt to have worked well but to have failed to keep up with changes in science and society.
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