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Need for 'father' in IVF treatment rejected by MPs

20/05/2008

MPs have voted down an amendment calling for both a "father and a mother" to be a condition for fertility treatment.

The amendment brought by Conservative MP Ian Duncan Smith was defeated by 292 votes to 217.

The legislation is expected to give lesbians and single women equal access to IVF treatment, with doctors only required to ensure that "supportive parenting" will be provided.

MPs have now begun debating and are due to vote around 22:00 BST tonight on whether the abortion limit should be lowered from its upper threshold of 24 weeks.

The vote comes as part of the controversial human fertilisation and embryology bill that is being debated in parliament.

Advocates of a lower limit say medical advances mean more very premature babies born before 24 weeks are surviving.

As such, they claim, on one hospital ward doctors could be aborting a 23-week-old fetus while on another ward they could be fighting to save a 23-week-old premature baby's life.

But other groups say the 24-week limit should be maintained as they believe there is no evidence to suggest the fetus is viable before this stage.

"If the time limit is reduced [today] abortion law in Britain will have reached the historic moment when it's cut loose from common consensus and medical opinion," said Family Planning Association (FPA) chief executive Julie Bentley.

Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris added: "There has been a campaign of misinformation, assertion and irrelevant information about the abortion time limit led by very well funded organisations opposed to all abortion.

"Sadly, the evidence shows that it simply isn't the case that wanted babies born below 24 weeks are more likely to survive. It is a cruel deception on parents with pre-term babies. It would be astonishing if parliament took a view against the united approach of all the relevant medical institutions."