Two new reports from the Women’s Health Council (WHC) recommends regulation of the Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) industry so as to better protect women’s physical and mental health, and to make the industry more ‘couple-centred’ in its approach.

The two reports are called ‘Infertility and its Treatments’. One deals with the effectiveness of the various infertility treatments, while the other deals with the emotional, social and practical difficulties that couples often encounter.

However, the second document, called ‘Infertility and its Treatments: A review of Psycho-Social Issues’, dismisses the importance of family structure for the well-being of a child.

It downplays the importance of the ‘genetic link’, that is, biological parenthood, to a child and questions only the practice of allowing sperm and egg donors to remain anonymous.

It refers extensively to the studies of Susan Golombok which are frequently used to justify adoption of children by same-sex couples but which are often criticised for being too small or for lacking a random sample of the population.

The WHC reports concentrate very heavily on the needs of adults, and the emotional experiences of donor-offspring do not feature in the reports except in passing.

The number of children born in Ireland from IVF in 2005 was 301, up from 135 in 2001. In many cases the child is the product of an egg or a sperm donation and is not biologically related to one or both of the adults who raise the child.

Launching the study, the WHC director said: “Infertility can have substantial physical, social and emotional repercussions, especially for women who undergo the majority of invasive investigations and procedures regardless of the cause of infertility. We hope that our reports will help to raise awareness of this important issue and bring information to patients, service providers and policy-makers in this very complex area”.