IVF is in the headlines in Australia again after Federal Finance Minister Penny Wong announced last week that she and her lesbian partner Sophie Allouache are to have a baby.

IVF is in the headlines in Australia again after Federal Finance Minister Penny Wong announced last week that she and her lesbian partner Sophie Allouache are to have a baby. However, the ensuing debate was not over ethics but public funding for lesbians wishing to access IVF treatment. Peter van Onselen, a political scientist and columnist for The Australian, wrote: “Why deny lesbians access to state funding of IVF but allow them access to any number of other state funding opportunities?” Senator Wong, the first openly homosexual member of the Australian Senate, declined to make the baby the centre of a political debate. “You have a child because you want a family and you want to have the opportunity of raising a child together. You don’t have a child to make a political statement,” she said. ~ Sydney Morning Herald, Aug 10

jared Yee
Australia
IVF

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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