Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has directed the National Health Service (NHS) to provide artificial reproduction at public expense to homosexual couples and to women up to the age of 42. The change was preceded by the abolition of a legal requirement that a child’s need for a father be taken into account when assessing requests for treatment [The Telegraph].
While the provision of such services is morally controversial, Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act includes a protection of conscience clause that prevents anyone having an objection to a service provided from being compelled to participate in it.