While I feel very sorry for these women, I suppose that I have to try and put myself into the position of the men who are refusing consent.

Artbrooks asks "Is it legal, and enforcable, under UK law for a mother to permanently waive all child support obligations that the father might have?" I don't believe it is. This might have something to do with reasons for the men's refusal to allow the embryos to be implanted.

I have definitely heard of a case where a woman deliberately impregnated herself with sperm out of a used condom without her partner's knowledge or consent. When she was later forced to live on state benefit, the baby's father was still required to pay maintenance for the child, even though he had not had any contact with her since the event and the woman made no secret of the circumstances of her insemmination. I have also heard of similiar cases where lesbian women have received sperm from male friends who were later required to maintain the child.

If the men were now living with new partners, the possibility of having to support a baby born to the previous partner could be a deterrent and many women would feel very distressed that another woman was currently having a child by their current partner.

Perhaps if there was some provision in law for an automatic adoption in such cases - more along the lines of the rules for doner insemmination, at least one of the hurdles could be removed.