Press Release

 

  

 

Child’s legal right to a Father stripped away by Government Bill

 

 

• The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill could deny children the right to know their father.

 

• Families Need Fathers (FNF) is appalled by further undermining of fatherhood.

 

The importance of a father’s role is being diminished by the Government’s plans to remove the requirement on test-tube clinics to ensure the involvement of a father in the upbringing of a child. This will remove the current legal right of every child to have a father.

 

This controversial proposal is being disputed by an alliance of senior politicians and churchmen as the Bill is debated today in the House of Lords, and has been described by the Archbishop of Westminster to be “profoundly wrong”.

 

FNF Chair, John Baker, said “We believe this proposal sends out an extremely worrying message that makes fathers redundant in the upbringing of children. In an environment where significant societal problems are caused by the lack of a father in a child’s life, the Government should be making every attempt to consolidate a father’s position, rather than weaken it.”

-  ENDS -

 Note for editors: Families Need Fathers (FNF) is a registered charity providing information and support on shared parenting issues arising from family breakdown, and support to divorced and separated parents, irrespective of gender or marital status. Our primary concern is the maintenance of the child’s relationship with both parents. Founded in 1974, FNF helps thousands of parents every year.

 

 

Please see Families Need Fathers ‘programme for change’ Father’s Day Manifesto