Lesbian couple who wanted baby sue over twins*

By James Grubel
Reuters
Thursday, September 20, 2007; 10:30 AM

CANBERRA (Reuters) - A lesbian couple in Australia are suing their
doctor after they had twin girls from an in vitro fertilization (IVF)
procedure when they only wanted one child.

The two women are seeking more than A$400,000 ($340,000) in damages to
help pay for the cost of raising the second child, including private
school fees, saying they had made it clear to their doctor that they
only wanted one baby.

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The twins are now 3 years old and the civil case, the first of its kind
in Australia, has prompted debate about the value of children and the
role of parents.

"The litigation involving twins already 3 years old undermines the
importance of parenthood," conservative government Senator Guy Barnett
said on Thursday.

"We seem more intent on preserving and pandering to the wishes of adults
than we are in protecting the rights of children," he said.

Barnett called for banning same-sex couples and unmarried women from
access to publicly funded IVF services, sparking a new moral debate
ahead of national elections due within months.

The case is being heard in Canberra, where letters published in the
local Canberra Times newspaper overwhelmingly criticized the legal
action after the birth of two healthy children.

"The child's identity is subsumed to the whim of the mother who has
bought the sperm and paid the IVF clinic," newspaper columnist Angela
Shanahan wrote in the Australian.

"Ultimately the result is the child as product, robbed of its unique
identity."

The court has ordered a gag on the identity of the women, who used donor
sperm from a Danish doctor for the IVF treatment in 2003 which resulted
in the birth of twin girls.

The court has heard that they signed a consent form to allow two embryos
to be implanted, but specifically told their specialist they only wanted
one embryo implanted.

The court was told the birth of the twins had created considerable
stress within the couple's relationship, but lawyers for the doctor said
that almost every couple who had a child went through similar strain.

Late on Thursday trial judge Annabelle Bennett adjourned the case for a
month, when she will consider final written submissions.

But the couple issued a statement to hit back at critics, saying the
legal action had nothing to do with their love for their twin girls, but
was about the doctor's failure to comply

"This has never been a case about whether our children are loved. They
are cherished," they wrote in a handwritten statement issued to media
covering the case.

($1=A$1.17)