Lesbian parents win the right to both be called mum

Lesbian parents win the right to both be called mum

by ARTHUR MARTIN - More by this author » Last updated at 10:14am on 3rd November 2007 Comments (6)

Lesbians in a relationship will both be given the legal status of parents when one gives birth through fertility treatment, it has emerged.

In a historic change to how a family unit is legally defined, the Human Tissues and Embryos Bill is expected to enshrine the concept of a two-mother family for the first time.

The move, to be announced in the Queen's Speech next week, will mark a historic change in how a family is legally defined.

When two women are in a relationship and one gives birth though fertility treatment, the other partner will be treated as the second parent, even if they are not in a civil partnership.

In these circumstances, the sperm donor will not be treated as a father to avoid the child having three legal parents.

The change would reflect the current policy regarding heterosexual couples. After a woman gives birth from sperm inseminated from a donor, her male partner is treated as the father even though he has no biological link to the child.

Men in same sex relationships who have children through surrogate mothers are not expected to be covered by the new legislation.

Last night the change was condemned by family campaigners who said there was no substitute for a family unit in which children are brought up by a mother and a father.

Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, told the Daily Telegraph: 'We are embarking on a dangerous social experiment with serious consequences for individual children and for society as a whole when we start tampering with the natural order and deny to children something as fundamental as having a parent of each sex.

'Men and women are not interchangeable and fathers are not an optional extra.'

Dr Anthony Cole, the chairman of the Medical Ethics Alliance, said: 'It doesn't seem right for the child not to have a father. There's strong evidence that children, particularly boys, need a male influence in their lives.'

If the bill is passed, it will allow children born from donor sperm or eggs to have some access to information about other children from the same donor.