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Stonewall joins the campaign for same sex couple recognition.

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• Stonewall

Changes afoot with fertility bill

Tuesday, 11 December 2007

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is currently making its way through parliament and includes provisions to legally recognise same-sex couples as parents of children conceived during their relationship. Stonewall is one of many organisations welcoming this new bill calling it a "logical and timely step".

Religious leaders have expressed concern over plans to make it easier for lesbian couples to use IVF to become parents. In a letter to The Times, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said the plans were "profoundly wrong" and undermined "the place of the father in a child's life".

Ben Summerskill of Stonewall said the moves in parliament towards fertility equality “will make it easier for lesbian couples to have access to fertility clinics and will also mean that a non-biological parent can appear on a baby's birth certificate, matching the position for heterosexuals. At Stonewall, we work hard for equality in every area of people's lives and this is every bit as important as the rest. Sadly, however, once again we've had to listen to nonsense about how gay people's relationships "don't last as long as heterosexuals" and how "children aren't playthings".

He continued, “Lesbian and gay families are part of the social landscape of twenty-first century Britain. And we now know that the children within them grow up with no developmental or social differences from other children. Moreover, almost all lesbian parents work assiduously to introduce male role models into their families.”

“Reflecting on that, I can't help remembering that one key fact was completely overlooked during the heated debates of the last few weeks. There are now more than three million children growing up in Britain in single-parent heterosexual households. So what's so wrong with a few hundred children ending up with a second loving parent in their loving - gay – families?”
www.stonewall.org.uk