The Right to a Child

In UK law, there is no right to a child, nor is there a right to fertility treatment, quite the opposite actually, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology act restricts considerably access to fertility treatment This act has a Welfare of the Child clause which states that fertility treatment can only be offered if the welfare of the child has been ensured once it is born There are 4 main types of fertility treatment:

1. 2. 3. 4.

AID artificial insemination by a donor AIH artificial insemination by the husband IVF treatment outside the body using normal human gametes Egg donation/surrogacy

The argument from freedom states that because a women is a free moral agent, she has the freedom to do whatever she wants, provided that she does not jeopardise the liberty/safety of others, because of this she has a right to a child However this raises the following objection; the right of freedom only gives her the liberty to have a child, not the right to have a child, these are two very different things

There is also the argument from nature which states that because most women have a natural urge to become a mother, then they therefore have right to become a mother, thereby having a right to a child However the clear objection to this is that it commits the naturalistic fallacy, just because we do have an urge to reproduce, it doesnt mean that we should Just because you have the urge, does not mean you have the right, many people have the natural urge to become rich and famous, it doesnt mean you have a right to this Lastly, preservation of life could be argued is a natural urge, and not the urge to have a child because this is not universalizable, note everyone who wants a child should be able to have it, for example an 80 year old woman Lastly, there is the quality of life argument, which states that a persons quality of life will be severely affected if they do not have a child, and so therefore they are entitled to have a child However the objection to this argument is that the quality of life of the child must also be taken into account