Access to Assisted Reproductive Technology
The Australian Section of Defence for Children International is the local link in a worldwide chain of non
government organisations that promote children’s rights. "We are concerned that last week's editorial on gay and lesbian access to assisted reproductive technology [The Sunday Age,
Editorial Opinion, 21 November 1999) contains a number of mistaken assumptions."
So far as the procedures are concerned, although some technologies are expensive, the most common procedure sought is merely the
insemination of sperm that has been screened for potentially fatal diseases. It cannot be in the public interest to deny access to such services in circumstances when we know that children are in
fact born to lesbian mothers without the benefit of the screening safeguards.
Readers should also know that the words of the current Victorian law also bars single women regardless of their sexual orientation. A
similar prohibition in South Australia was found to be constitutionally invalid by that State’s Supreme Court and the same reasoning would apply here.
The real starting point for community thinking is that there is no research basis for denigrating the capacity of gay and lesbian couples
or individuals to parent effectively. That fact has been recognised by courts and legislatures both here and overseas.
There are, however, people whose history, for example of violence, would warrant excluding them from using assisted reproductive technology. Judgment calls in
particular cases are legitimate. Blanket bans should not be supported on the basis of supposed "societal attitudes at this time". Doing so only entrenches discrimination. And the children
already born into gay and lesbian families suffer the brunt.
25 November 1999
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