London - A growing number of single women are choosing to undergo fertility treatment in order to have a baby without a partner, figures show.
About 632 single women had IVF treatment in 2012, compared to 259 in 2007, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
The number of single women having donor insemination increased from 330 to 468 over the same period.
The rise follows the 2008 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which removed the reference to “the need for a father” when considering fertility treatment, replacing it with “the need for supportive parenting”.
Professor Geeta Nargund, medical director at private fertility clinic Create Fertility, told the Sunday Times: “Women are taking control of their reproduction as much as they took control when the oral contraceptive pill was introduced.
“We are seeing everyone from affluent career women to women who have no money whose parents and grandparents are paying for them.”
The number of single-parent families in Britain has increased by five percent in a decade, figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed.
Most of these are a product of divorces and separations, but now a growing minority of women are setting out to create single-parent families from the start.
The rise in the number of single women using fertility treatment has left some concerned that the trend reflects the wider erosion of traditional families.
Dr Peter Saunders, head of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said: “Many solo parents do a sterling job against tremendous odds.” But he went on to claim that the “optimal environment for the emotional and spiritual development of children” is to be with two married parents “to whom they are directly biologically related”. - Daily Mail