Leading zoologist, human behaviour expert and author Desmond Morris has given cautioned support to same sex parents, saying he believes a lesbian or gay family unit is unlikely to be "damaging" to a child.
Speaking to the Guardian today, Morris adds that, although a child needs male role models if he has lesbian parents, or vice versa with gay male parents, modern society will provide these in other areas of life.
"The disadvantage, especially if it is a male baby, is that it will have no male figure in the family environment. But the baby should encounter males in other social contexts - teachers, or uncles, or friends of the parents," he says.
He argues, that in an evolutionary sense, "double parenting" is the ideal choice for caring for the child.
"In one sense that child is going to be better off because it is going to have double-mothering, which is something any child would obviously benefit from enormously," he comments.
In the case of lesbian parents, brought to the foreground of public opinion yesterday with arguments over whether they should have rights to IVF treatment, Morris says he believes two women could successfully rear a child, because they would have double the impact of feminine nurturing traits.
"We don't know enough about the effect of two lesbians bringing up a child. It's too new. But in theory, the child should receive more care, because women are more programmed for nurturing than men," he says.
"When you use the terms "masculinity" and "femininity", because we are in a culture that stresses sexual equality, there is a tendency to feel that you are making a distinction that is not politically correct.
"The point is that males and females are different but equal. Males are better at some things and females are better at others. And these differences aren't a matter of political opinion, but genetics."
The issue of gay parents has become topical once again, with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) chief Suzi Leather yesterday calling for a clause restricting single women and lesbians from receiving IVF because of the absence of a father to be dropped.
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