Peers and church leaders oppose test-tube baby Bill plan

A coalition of peers and church leaders will launch a campaign today to scupper plans to give lesbian couples the right to have test-tube babies. They will also oppose moves that could lead to the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for research.

The Government faces a backlash when the Lords considers the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Critics will speak out against the Bill, marking the start of a parliamentary campaign to wreck it.

Its most contentious proposal would enable lesbian couples to become joint legal parents of children conceived using donated sperm or eggs. The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, and peers of all parties, are expected to join criticism of the Bill, which was announced in this month's Queen's Speech.

One of the leading opponents of the proposals on test-tube babies, the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, said the Bill would remove the requirement for a father: "Another nail will have been hammered into the coffin of the traditional family. And another blow will have been struck against fatherhood."

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said: "This move could not have come at a worse time. Just as we are beginning to appreciate the vital role fathers play in the successful upbringing of children, Labour ministers are sending out the utterly wrong signal that fathers don't matter."

But Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights group Stonewall, said the Bill would merely extend the right already available to heterosexuals.

"At a time when three million children in this country are growing up in single-parent households, it seems odd there should be this obsession with a few hundred who have an opportunity to have a second loving parent," he added.

Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat science spokesman, said: "The research evidence is clear that children do well in lesbian households, and when brought up by mature solo women who plan their motherhood."

Archbishop Mario Conti, chairman of the Joint Catholic Bioethics Committee of Britain and Ireland, said: "We are frankly appalled at proposals ... which break down the natural bonds of family life linked with procreation."

The new Bill

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill attempts to update legislation almost 20 years old. It would remove the 'need for a father' in the provision of fertility treatment and recognise same-sex couples as legal parents. It will also regulate 'inter-species' embryos created for research from a mixture of human and animal genetic material. The Bill may be further amended by supporters of tougher abortion controls.