Page 13 - IAV Digital Magazine #445

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Failure To Find A Sexual Partner Is Now A DISABILITY Says WHO
By Rebecca Perring
Until now, infertili- ty - the failure to achieve pregnan- cy after 12 months or more of regular unpro- tected sex - was not considered a disability.
But now in dra- matic move the World Health Organisation will change the stan- dard to suggest that a person who is unable to find a suitable sexual partner or is lack- ing a sexual rela- tionship to have children - will now be equally classi- fied as disabled.
WHO says the change will give every individual “the right to repro- duce”.
Under the new rules, heterosexu- al single men and women and gay men and women who want to have children will now be given the same priority as a couple seeking IVF because of medical fertility problems.
But critics brand- ed the new laws as “absurd non- sense” arguing that the organisa- tion has over- stepped the mark by moving into social matters rather than health.
Gareth Johnson MP, former chair of the All Parliamentary Group on Infertility, whose own children were born thanks to fertility treatment, said: “I’m in gen- eral a supporter of IVF. But I’ve never regarded infertility as a dis- ability or a dis- ease but rather a medical matter.
“I’m the first to say you should have more avail- ability of IVF to infertile couples but we need to ensure this whole subject retains credibility.
“This definition runs the risk of undermining the work Nice and others have done to ensure IVF treatment is made available for infer- tile couples when you get definitions off the mark like this. I think it’s try- ing to put IVF into a box that it does- n’t fit into frankly.”
Josephine Quintavalle,from Comment on Reproductive Ethics added:
“This absurd non- sense is not sim- ply re-defining infertility but com- pletely side-lining the biological process and sig- nificance of natu- ral intercourse between a man and a woman.
“How long before babies are creat- ed and grown on request complete- ly in the lab?”
But Dr David Adamson, an author of the new standards, argued itisa“big chance” for single and gay people.
He said: “The def- inition of infertility is now written in such a way that it includes the rights
of all indi- viduals to have a family, and that includes single men, sin- gle women, gay men, gay women.
"It puts a stake in the ground and says
an individual's got a right to repro- duce whether or not they have a partner. It's a big change.
"It fundamentally alters who should be included in this group and who should have access to health- care. It sets an international legal standard. Countries are bound by it."
A spokesman for the Department of Health said the NHS was under no obligation to follow World Health Organisation’s final advice.
Under the
Equality Act 2010 a person is dis- abled if they have a physical or mental impair- ment that has a 'substantial' and 'long-term' nega- tive effect on their ability to do nor- mal daily activi- ties.
But Libby Purves, presenter of Radio 4’s Midweek, was scathing about the new recom- mendation.
She said: “When a flaky new human right is suddenly tossed out by a serious UN agency it is not just silly but dangerous.
“The World Health Organisation, which has plenty else on its plate, has long defined infertility as a dis- ability.
“It is sad but not disabled com- pared to someone who is blind, deaf, mentally
impaired, or seri- ously crippled.”
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine