The World Health Organization wants to redefine the concept of infertility to include single and gay people on the same lists as couples that want to have children through in vitro fertilization and other methods.
The new concept would say that people that cannot find a partner with whom to a have a child will be considered disable so states have to help them to afford the treatment. Under the new term, infertility will no longer be considered as a medical condition but also a social state. Single women and men would fall into the category “disable” not for having an incapacity to conceive but for not finding a partner with whom to procreate.
Currently, WHO defines infertility as a disease of the reproductive system, which fails to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. It happens to people between the ages 15 and 49 and also includes couples that have been trying to conceive for five years.
The revised meaning would give everybody the right to reproduce, to have a child and become a parent, but not everyone agrees with the broad new concept. Many people think that allowing everybody to have a child will reduce the chances of having in vitro fertilization or the opportunity to get a surrogate mother to people with actual fertility problems which include a health condition and not the incapability to find someone with whom to procreate.
The U.K. National Health Service policy, for example, states that only those considered infertile are qualified to receive funds to have children. If the new definition is approved, everyone will be at the same level when it comes to being funded to have a child. NHS’s current definition of infertility only includes people that cannot conceive despite having regular unprotected sex.
The U.K. National Health Service will decide if they will follow WHO’s revised definition, considering that in the country, one in seven couples have medical conditions that do not let them have a child. People think WHO does not have the authority to classify a social condition as a medical one, considering infertility is a serious medical problem and a traumatic experience for most people that suffer it.
Having a baby is a right and not a privilege
Dr. David Adamson, one of the authors of the revised definition, believes the new connotation of the concept infertility will give people fair access to reproductive health. Nowadays, people that want to have a baby by themselves and gay couples have to go to private facilities and have to pay for all their fertility treatments. The new definition will make them qualified for proper state funding.
“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. It puts a stake in the ground and says an individual’s got a right to reproduce 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 healthcare. It sets an international legal standard. Countries are bound by it,” Dr. Adamson told The Telegraph.
Source: The Inquisitr