# Controversy over donor issues



## drownedgirl (Nov 12, 2006)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6924615.stm

It might be worth writing to your MP if you have strong views over "the need for a father" or "donor conception to be on birth certificate" (it looks like the former will the stay in the bill, but the latter will go)

http://www.writetothem.com - contact your MP here


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## drownedgirl (Nov 12, 2006)

I have written to mine

Dear xx

Human Tissue and Embryos Bill

Having read this news report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6924615.stm

I am concerned on three counts. Firstly, that the HFEA is a discredited organisation, that despite being funded by the money of fertility patients, does little to provide real support for our interests and wastes its time on vendettas against individual clinicians such as the ARGC. Its clear intent is to make Single Embryo Transfer mandatory, without fighting for a real increase in NHS resources to make this feasible.

Secondly, that emphasis on the need for an IVF baby to have "a legal father" delegitimises single parent and lesbian families, both new and existing.

Thirdly that the suggestion that donor conception be identified on birth certificates has been ill thought out. Personally I support openness in these matters but I feel it is not a matter for public announcement. A family should be able to decide when and how to tell a child, and not have this information available to all and sundry without their consent - when applying for a school place, for example.

Furthermore, I fear that if this clause was passed, it would become illegal for families to go abroad for donor eggs, as most do, due to a shortage in this country. Allowing increased recompense to UK donors would be a better way to shift the balance back to domestic donation, where anonymity has already been removed. If this is an attempt to prevent donor treatment abroad, by the back door, the bill should be upfront about the implications. With such limitations on NHS fertility treatment, and such high costs for private treatment, many women are forced into the donor route as IVF is not available to them before their fertility starts to decline even further.

I look forward to hearing your views on this matter, and you voting in support of the interests of the many infertile people in the UK.

Yours sincerely,

xx


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