New guidelines are calling for homosexuals and singles to be given “the right to reproduce” on their own.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that these people should receive the same priority as couples that are seeking IVF treatment due to fertility issues.
Under the new definition, single people who have no medical issues would be considered disabled and classed as “infertile” if they do not have children and want to be a parent.
’Absurd nonsense’
The WHO will send the guidelines to health ministers worldwide for consideration next year.
Josephine Quintavalle, from the group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, called the new definition “absurd nonsense”.
She said it is “not simply re-defining infertility but completely side-lining the biological process and significance of natural intercourse between a man and a woman”.
Consideration
Dr David Adamson, one of the authors of the WHO guidelines, said: “The definition of infertility is now written in such a way that it includes the rights of all individuals to have a family, and that includes single men, single women, gay men, gay women.”
At present, the NHS provide fertility treatment solely for those proven infertile, or whose failure to conceive is still unexplained.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said the guidelines would be considered by the NHS but they would not be forced to follow them.