Gay couples and single men who want kids will be branded ‘INFERTILE’ – to make accessing IVF easier
The World Health Organisation is reviewing who should get access to IVF and other fertility treatment
GAY couples will be defined as “infertile” under radical new plans to make it easier for them to access fertility treatment.
The powerful World Health Organisation is reviewing who should get medical help to have a baby.
Under the new proposals, single men and single women would be considered “infertile” if they want a child - but simply don't have a partner.
Family campaigners say making it a social rather than medical issue would be “absurd nonsense”.
And MPs said it could make it even harder to get IVF on the NHS.
Dr David Adamson, from the International Committee Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies, said it was a “big change”.
It is written in such a way that it includes the rights of all individuals to have a family, and that includes single men, single women, gay men, gay women
Dr David Adamson, International Committee Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies
Dr Adamson, who worked on the proposed WHO definition, said: “It puts a stake in the ground and says an individual’s got a right to reproduce whether or not they have a partner.
“It fundamentally alters who should be included in this group, who should have access to healthcare.
“It is written in such a way that it includes the rights of all individuals to have a family, and that includes single men, single women, gay men, gay women.”
The draft proposals have yet to be rubber-stamped.
In Britain, cash-strapped NHS trusts are already struggling to provide IVF to desperate couples.
Last month, new figures revealed free IVF on the health service had reached a 12-year low.
Only one in six trusts offer three cycles of IVF to eligible women under 40 – the number recommended by regulators.
And earlier this year, three trusts banned IVF completely to save cash.
Under current guidance by NHS watchdog NICE, same-sex couples and single men and women can get free IVF – but only after they have tried for a baby through their own means.
Simply being single or gay would not automatically give them the label “infertile” – as suggested by the new WHO guidance.
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MP Gareth Johnson, former chair of the All Parliamentary Group on Infertility said: “You should have more availability of IVF to infertile couples but we need to ensure this whole subject retains credibility.
“This definition runs the risk of undermining the work Nice and others have done to ensure IVF treatment is made available for infertile couples when you get definitions off the mark like this.”
The new definition has been drawn up by the world’ leading fertility organisations and submitted to the WHO.
10 MILLION IVF BABIES WITHIN FOUR YEARS
There will be 10 million IVF babies on the planet by 2020, fertility experts have said.
Analysis by the International Committee Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies – ICMART – says that since the first IVF baby Louise Brown was born in Britain in 1978, 6.5 million babies have been born using the technology.
As the procedure gathers pace, they predict a further 3.5 million births within the next four years.
They will decide whether to adopt it in the New Year.
If they do, they will then send packs to every health ministry in their 194 member states asking them for data on local IVF provision.
Last night family campaigners blasted the idea.
Josephine Quintavalle, from Comment of Reproductive Ethics, said: “This absurd nonsense is not simply re-defining infertility but completely side-lining the biological process and significance of natural intercourse between a man and a woman.”
The WHO already defines infertility as a disease that leads to disability. Despite this, the NHS still rations treatment to slash costs.