Dad's role seen as more than fathering

By ANNE BESTON

If men thought the news that they might not be needed to help make babies would be greeted with delight in some quarters, it seems they're wrong.

Lesbian mothers spoken to yesterday said that although the possibility of having a child with their partner was tempting, they did not embrace the idea wholeheartedly.

"We feel the children needed a dad," said Dr Liz Harding who, with her partner of 11 years, has 4-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.

"Some people might say we want to do without men, but that's rubbish," she said.

"Just because we're lesbians does not mean we don't want men in our lives."

But if a technique had been available to create a child with her partner, with genes from them both, she would probably have considered it.

"We might have had to think about it. It would have seemed more natural and normal to have genetic material from both of us."

A sperm-free technique to create babies is being researched at Melbourne's Monash University. It aims to help men with no sperm, estimated at one in 4000, to father children.

Auckland clinic Fertility Associates said male infertility was a problem in about one-third of couples wanting treatment.

A member of the Melbourne research team, Dr Orly Lacham-Kaplan, said that in theory the discovery could also help lesbian couples to have girls that were genetically their own. One woman would contribute the egg and the second a cell to fertilise it.

The team succeeded in making a normal mouse egg fertile by using an artificial gamete (egg) and a cell from another part of the body.

Auckland lesbian mother Josephine Lowry, 33, described the possibility as a bit "icky" but said she might have considered it.

"It could be tempting initially, but I don't know how good it would be for the species - it's not too different from cloning."

Ms Lowry has a 10-month-old boy and has been with her partner for eight years. Like Dr Harding, she became pregnant through treatment at a fertility clinic.

She said her son had a right to male role-models and although his father was an anonymous sperm donor, he could be contacted in future if her son wanted it.

Dr Harding's twins were fathered by an anonymous sperm donor, but they also have a non-biological father who is involved in their lives.

She said if the technique meant lesbian mothers could have only girls, it would be a disadvantage. "Girls are great, but boys are wonderful too."

Ground-breaking experiments in human reproduction such as that being carried out by Dr Lacham-Kaplan would theoretically be legal in New Zealand, but would have to gain approval from the National Ethics Committee on Human Assisted Reproduction, an independent body set up to advise the Government on fertility issues.

Two bills dealing with reproductive technology are before Parliament's health select committee.

The report-back date for the bills has just been delayed six months. They were due to come back before the House this year, and will probably be combined to become one law.