LONDON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Church leaders united with members of Britain's House of Lords to oppose legislation giving lesbian couples the right to have test tube babies.
The group launched a parliamentary campaign Monday to scuttle the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill proposed by the ruling Labor government, The Independent reported.
The measure, which removes the requirement for a father in providing fertility treatment, would enable lesbian couples to become joint legal parents of children conceived using donated sperm or eggs.
The Archbishop of York John Sentamu is among those expected to criticize the bill upon its introduction in the House of Lords.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith is among the harshest critics of the measure.
"Another nail will have been hammered into the coffin of the traditional family." Smith wrote in the Mail Sunday. "And another blow will have been struck against fatherhood."
A spokesman for the Liberal Democrat party, Evan Harris, said research indicates children do well in lesbian households.
