The Government launched its first ever public consultation on Britain's fertility laws today, asking for the country's opinion on issues including internet sperm banks, fertility treatment for gay couples and how embryos should be screened before being implanted in the womb.

The consultation is part of the review of the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Act, which was passed in 1990. Advances in fertility technology and techniques over the last 15 years have given rise to a range of practices and ethical issues which are currently not covered under the law.

"The HFE Act was a landmark piece of legislation which has stood the test of time well," said Caroline Flint, the Public Health Minister, as she unveiled the consultation document this morning.

"However, we never expected that the Act would remain forever unchanged in the face of major developments in science and medicine. The consultation raises many complex issues on which there are many different and strongly held views," she said.

The 98-page document covers eight main subjects of debate in the evolution of Britain's fertility laws, including the questions of how fertility treatment clinics should be regulated, how embryos should be screened and how far doctors should consider the future family life of the child.

Among the most contentious clauses in the current legislation relate to the obligation of fertility doctors to consider "the need of that child for a father" when they are preparing to inseminate a woman with a fertilised embryo.

Today's consultation acknowledges that many people, including groups representing lesbian couples and single mothers, find the phrasing of the law outdated and asks: "Do you think that it should be replaced with 'the need of the child for a father and a mother'?"

A Science and Technology Select Committee report earlier this year branded the need for a male role model as "offensive" to unconventional families. Dr Evan Harris, a member of the committee, today said that MPs judged the welfare of the child test to be "discriminatory, impractical, ineffective, and inappropriate".

The consultation asks whether the requirement to take account of the need for a father should be removed from the Act, or perhaps replaced with "the need of the child for a father and a mother".

"The Government should ditch the ‘need of the child for a father’ test as discriminatory and a non-evidence-based remnant of old-fashioned attitudes," Dr Harris said.

Any laws that require the welfare of babies born through IVF will be controversial on discrimination grounds, the Government admits, as the state has no right to meddle in the future of babies born naturally.

The document also questions the exact role of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which was set up in 1990 to oversee the original act and issue licenses for fertility treatments, should be in the future.

Lord Winston, a fertility expert from Imperial College London, questioned the role of the HFEA in a branch of medical science which he said was vastly over-regulated. "There is a clear case for thoroughly examining the clinical regulation of IVF to see if continuing with a body such as the HFEA is justified," he said.

"Given the existing constraints on all clinical practice, it is difficult to see why this one aspect of clinical treatment should be singled out for such regulation," he said.

Other issues under scrutiny include the rules governing the screening of embryos to determine their physical characteristics, sex and their likelihood of suffering disabilities or a genetic or hereditary disease.

The current law allows screening for genetic diseases and the likelihood of a good match for transplants, should a parent want to have a new child to help a seriously ill sibling.

But the law does not cover "sperm sorting" to choose the sex of the embryo or the possibility of "screening in" of diseases -- an issue recently raised in America when deaf parents wanted to ensure the birth of a deaf child to share their experience of the world.

Today's consultation also covers the range of new businesses and clinics that have emerged offering fertility treatment in recent years. Of particular concern are "internet sperm banks", which currently operate without regulation or government licenses that demand that the sperm is screened for diseases, including AIDS.

The Government has announced its intention to regulate such businesses and asks today whether the law should bring them into line with existing rules or "prohibit the operation of such services" altogether. The public consultation period lasts until November 24.

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