The Christian social policy charity CARE has expressed serious concerns about the Review of the Embryology and Fertility Act published by the Department of Health last week.

CARE believes that it is wrong that the government is recommending that women will deliberately bring into the world children who will not have a father.

The current legal requirement in the HFE Act that the child's need for a father should be taken into account is in place because a mother cannot be both a mother and a father to a child.

"Although physical requirements can of course, be adequately met by a single woman, a mother cannot substitute for all the emotional and social needs of children, especially boys," states a CARE press release.

Daniel Boucher, CARE's Director of Parliamentary Affairs, said: "Clear and well documented evidence has been published detailing the damage that absent fatherhood can have on children in the long term. It cannot therefore be in the best interests of children to deliberately plan to bring children into the world without a father, and yet this is exactly what the Government is now recommending. Our prime concern should be for the child, not the whims of a would-be parent."