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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, the House will be relieved to hear that I do not look upon this as an opportunity to rehash all the arguments about why, when treatment is being considered, regard should be had to the child’s need for a father. But in view of the fact that there was no debate in the other place of Clauses 42 and 43, I think some brief comments are appropriate. We often discuss in this place the rights of children, and I find it absolutely astonishing that we are being asked to sanction the deliberate creation of children with the intent that they be denied a father for the duration of their childhood, completely ignoring those children’s rights. That seems so obviously wrong that there is no need for further words of embellishment. But how can it be seriously argued that the right of two women to have a child is so strong that it completely overwhelms and drives out of court other people’s rights, in particular the rights of the child they insist on bringing into the world? One of the purposes of the Bill is to ensure that same-sex couples may produce a child by donor, the arrival of the child being the very object of the exercise. I believe that its human rights are as important, if not more important, than the rights of the same-sex couple. I shall certainly support the right reverend Prelate’s amendment, but must say that I find wholly objectionable the idea that by a legal fiction, a child should find itself with two women as its parents instead of a father and a mother. I do not believe that such a child’s human rights are being properly protected.