Fed: Howard on road to eugenics women s health network

AAP General News (Australia)
08-02-2000
Fed: Howard on road to eugenics women s health network

By Rada Rouse, National Medical Correspondent

GOLD COAST, Qld, Aug 2 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard would be on a "slippery slope"

to eugenics by legislating to deny some women the right to have children, the Australian
Women's Health Network said today.

Convenor Helen Keleher said the network was astonished by Mr Howard's announcement
that he would attempt to change the law to prevent lesbian and single women from accessing
IVF programs.

"This proposal sounds eugenic to me," Dr Keleher told AAP.

"Eugenicists believe that only certain people should be allowed to breed and this is
a slippery slope on which to embark."

Dr Keleher said the idea that society could dictate who was suitable for motherhood
and who was not should be resisted.

"Children have a right to be loved and cared for and supported by governments through
their family funding programs," she said.

"Not every household with a father in it is a happy and loving one so the main principle
is that children are loved by one or two or an extended family."

Dr Keleher, a senior lecturer at La Trobe University, Bendigo, said placing a narrow
view on what constituted a family was against the Institute of Family Studies' own definition.

"This government is committed to support for families and in their diversity, all types
of families have the right to government support," she said.

"It is a women's health issue that women should again be told by men in power whether
they are approved mothers or not."

Dr Keleher said the federal government was attempting to "ration" medical technology.

Mr Howard said yesterday he wanted to amend the federal Sex Discrimination Act to reflect
the reasonable expectation that children required the affection and care of both a mother
and a father.

Dr Keleher said Mr Howard was using the federal act "ruthlessly".

The proposed amendments to the federal act would allow states to discriminate on the
basis of sex in IVF cases.

"I think that it's interesting the federal government would choose to intervene on
this one, and not to intervene on mandatory sentencing, for example," she said.

AAP rr/jhm/was/de

KEYWORD: IVF EUGENICS

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.