An Insight into Access to Fertility Treatment by Gays, Lesbians, and Unmarried Persons SciDoc Publishers | Open Access | Science Journals | Media Partners

Fertility programs often receive requests for treatment from single persons, unmarried heterosexual couples, and lesbian and gay couples, but programs vary in their willingness to accept such patients. For some programs, it is never acceptable to treat unmarried persons, whether heterosexual or gay or lesbian. Other programs that do treat single women and lesbian couples, however, make it a policy not to treat single men or gay male couples seeking to have children. Requests for treatment from such individuals or couples present questions about reproductive rights; the welfare of offspring; nondiscrimination against unmarried individuals, gays, and lesbians; and professional autonomy. An over-arching ethical question is whether it is acceptable to help unmarried individuals or couples to reproduce, regardless of their sexual orientation. If it is ethical to provide such services, a second question is whether programs have a duty to treat all persons, regardless of their gender, relationship status, or sexual orientation. Society has long since moved from restricting reproduction to heterosexual married couples. Although the majority of offspring in the United States are born to heterosexual married couples, long experience has shown that variations from this model do not generally harm offspring or society. As a result, it has been discovered that neither concerns about the welfare of children nor the desire to promote marriage justify denying reproductive services to unmarried individuals or couples, including those who are gay or lesbian. Although professional autonomy in deciding who to treat is also an important value, we believe that there is an ethical obligation, and in some states there is a legal duty, to treat all persons equally, regardless of their marital status or sexual orientation. This paper aims to explore the implications of reproduction by single individuals, unmarried heterosexual couples, and gay and lesbian couples. It also discusses a new California Healthcare law which deals with gay and lesbian discrimination for fertility treatment