---

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

I am not remotely interested in the rights of children or the rights of women or anybody else to have children. I am concerned only with the best interests of the children. As the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, said, Section 13 of the 1990 Act was the response of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, the then Lord Chancellor, to my amendment which would have made illegal the provision of in vitro fertilisation services to unmarried women and which was disagreed by this House by one vote on a free vote. The point about Section 13 is that it puts the interest of any children resulting from those services first and above the interests of the woman who wants a baby, where those interests conflict. I am not aware that the child’s interests have ceased to be paramount in the past 17 years. It is widely acknowledged, as the noble Baronesses, Lady Deech and Lady O’Cathain, have said, that it is the best interests of a child to have two parents, one of each sex. Many unfortunate children do not, but they have been born without the use of artificial processes, often paid for by the taxpayer. I therefore support the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Deech.