The first NHS-funded sperm bank is set to be launched in Britain to enable lesbian couples and single women to have children at less than half the cost of a private clinic.
The initiative, which will be funded by taxpayers’ money, will enable women to search an online database and select a donor based on various factors including ethnicity, height, profession and even hobbies.
The bank will then send that donor’s sperm to a clinic chosen by the client for use in trying for a baby.
The Department of Health said that the initiative would “meet increasing demand from lesbians and single women who wish to start a family without having a relationship with a man.”
The bank, which is set to open in October, will charge £300 for the service - considerably less than the private sector.
Fatherless children
But critics say that the move is a “social experiment” that will result in the birth of hundreds of fatherless, ‘designer babies’.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali said: “There is a big difference between children growing up without fathers because of death or family breakdown, and actively planning to bring children into the world who will not know one of their biological parents and where such a parent will never be part of the nurture of these children.
“The removal from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of the need of a child for a father may have been a triumph for radical feminists, but we should not be planning for bringing significant numbers of children into this world who will not know their fathers.
“This will be disastrous, not only for the children, but for a sense of self-worth in men and, therefore, for society generally.”
Read Bishop Michael’s full piece here >
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