'Win A Baby': Monthly IVF Lottery To Launch

The first IVF lottery is to launch in the UK later this month - giving prospective parents the chance to 'win a baby'.

The Gambling Commission has granted a licence to charity To Hatch, tickets for the controversial game will be sold online at £20 each and a winner selected every month.

The lottery begins on July 30 and those entering could win £25,000 worth of tailor-made fertility treatments at one of the country's top clinics.

It will not just be limited to couples - single, gay and elderly players will also be able to take part.

Winners will be given accommodation in a luxury hotel before being chauffeur driven for treatment.

If standard IVF fails, they can be offered donor eggs, reproductive treatment or even a surrogate birth.

A mobile phone will also be provided so they can maintain contact with doctors at all times.

If a single man or woman wins, they will be provided with donor sperm, a donor embryo or a surrogate mother.

All profits from the lottery will go back into To Hatch. The charity offers fertility advice to couples who are seeking IVF.

But the competition has been branded "totally unacceptable" by critics.

Josephine Quintavalle from Comment on Reproductive Ethics told Sky News Online: "We have the greatest sympathy for those who have difficulty in conceiving.

"There should be proper investment in the United Kingdom in understanding and addressing the causes of infertility, which are most frequently associated with age, body weight, other lifestyle issues.

"But this latest initiative, turning the process of reproduction into a buy-your-ticket lottery, is absolutely unacceptable and quite possibly breaks European Law on the commercialisation of human tissue.

"By all accounts, this lottery offers not just a chance to have IVF treatment but also promises access to surrogate wombs, spare embryos, egg and sperm donors.

"It is in this area where an immediate investigation should be demanded. It is surely not legal to pay £20 to have access to another woman's womb?

"The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority should be questioned immediately as to their position on this latest trivialisation of human reproduction and it is to be hoped that questions will be raised immediately in Parliament."