Sperm bank described as social experimentation

#998 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 23 Nov 2014.

British Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali has described the practice of deliberately bringing children into the world without a father figure as “social experimentation.”

His comments come after the launch of a national sperm bank in Birmingham, which drastically reduces the cost of buying sperm for single women and same-sex couples.

Bishop Nazir-Ali said: “It’s one thing for a child not to have a mother or father through tragedy, but it is another to plan children to come into the world without a father.”

He said, “Research tells us that children relate to their fathers differently than to their mothers, and this is important in developing a sense of their own identity.”

Children are precious, and they deserve the best we can give them.

A study by the University of Canterbury in New Zealand found that teenage girls raised without fathers were more likely to suffer from depression, have behavioural problems and drop out of school.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.