24 April 2002

“The race to secure fertility treatment in NZ and Australia has become a race to put the selfish desires of adults before those of children,” Party Leader Graham Capill said today.

He was commenting on a decision of a full bench of seven judges in the Australian High Court to give single women the ‘right’ to access fertility treatment under the Australian Sex Discrimination Act.

Mr Capill said, “The same issues are facing NZ. What is being forgotten in all this is the future cost to our nation and the children who are the products of this social experiment.

“At a time when health resources are limited and family life is all too often breaking down, no nation can afford to pursue policies in the area of reproductive health that will aggravate the problem. There is an abundance of evidence that shows children need both a mother and father. To deliberately set out to deny children their right to such input, is surely more serious than a single woman’s right to fertility treatment.

“CHP believes that if there is sufficient money to fund procedures for single women, the money should be redirected to research which endeavours to prevent or find cures for infertility,” Mr Capill concluded

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