Singletons classified as ‘infertile’

SINGLE men and women who want a baby but have not found a partner should be classed as ‘infertile’ by the NHS, under United Nations proposals.

Doctors deem couples infertile if they have been trying to conceive for 12 months without success.

But a new definition, set to be approved by the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO), would mean individuals who have not found Mr or Mrs Right will also fall into the category. It could lead to single women who have not tried to have a baby naturally getting equal access to fertility treatment.

The definition would also apply to a single man who wants to be a father, as well as gay and lesbian couples. It would in effect create a new category of ‘social infertility’ – those who are unable to conceive not for biological reasons but because they do not have a partner or their spouse is the same sex.

The new definition, which was last night branded ‘absurd’ by family values campaigners, is expected to be adopted by the WHO in 2017. Legal experts last night said the change could mean the NHS has to review its regulations and make more provision for single would-be parents.

It could also mean commercial surrogacy – currently illegal in the UK – might have to be reconsidered to ensure more singles and gay couples can start a family. At the moment, only a surrogate’s expenses can be covered.

At the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Salt Lake City, Utah, Dr David Adamson of ICMART, the UN body setting out the changes, said: ‘It says an individual’s got a right to reproduce whether or not they have a partner. All the countries that belong to the UN, in a sense they’ve signed on to it. Countries are bound by it. It has legal standing.’

But Josephine Quintavalle of the organisation Comment on Reproductive Ethics said: ‘This absurd nonsense is not simply redefining infertility but completely sidelining the biological process and significance of natural intercourse between a man and a woman.’