Norway ethics body backs IVF for legal males
The Local Norway - [email protected]
Published: 3 Nov, 2015 CET.
Updated: Tue 3 Nov 2015 10:19 CET
A Norwegian scientific ethics body has backed government plans to allow those who change legal gender from female to male to retain their ovaries and have children.
The change, if brought into law, will mean that someone legally male will be able to have fertility treatment, become pregnant and have children.
Norway's health minister Bent Høie in April announced plans to end the the country’s much criticised forced sterilisation of transexuals.
The Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board said that its members saw “no compelling reason” why being legally male should prevent anyone from receiving artificial insemination and IVF treatment on through Norway’s national health service.
“A majority of those in the council see no compelling reason to deny these people assisted reproductive technologies they either desire or require simply becsuse ther have changed their legal gender,” Kristin Halvorsen, the council’s chairperson, told Dagbladet.
Nine of the council’s 13 members voted to allow transexuals IVF and other treatment, with the remaining four arguing against the measure.
Ingvild Endestad, spokesperson for Norway’s National Association for Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people, said that the decision brought true equality for transgender people “a step closer”.
“We are convinced that people themselves, not the state or psychiatrists, should have control over their own bodies and their own identities,” she said. “If these proposals are adopted, we are an important step closer to that goal.”
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The change, if brought into law, will mean that someone legally male will be able to have fertility treatment, become pregnant and have children.
Norway's health minister Bent Høie in April announced plans to end the the country’s much criticised forced sterilisation of transexuals.
The Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board said that its members saw “no compelling reason” why being legally male should prevent anyone from receiving artificial insemination and IVF treatment on through Norway’s national health service.
“A majority of those in the council see no compelling reason to deny these people assisted reproductive technologies they either desire or require simply becsuse ther have changed their legal gender,” Kristin Halvorsen, the council’s chairperson, told Dagbladet.
Nine of the council’s 13 members voted to allow transexuals IVF and other treatment, with the remaining four arguing against the measure.
Ingvild Endestad, spokesperson for Norway’s National Association for Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people, said that the decision brought true equality for transgender people “a step closer”.
“We are convinced that people themselves, not the state or psychiatrists, should have control over their own bodies and their own identities,” she said. “If these proposals are adopted, we are an important step closer to that goal.”
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