IVF Under Attack
There's been a lot in press lately about In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). The government's threatened to limit the number of IVF cycles that will be funded through Medicare. You'd think that these measures would only be enacted because they save a lot of money. You'd be wrong .... the predicted savings are in the range of $7 - $15 million. When compared to a health budget running into the billions, it's nothing.
So why are they doing it? Perhaps the reason can be fathomed from a comment on a spray The Flute wrote on the same subject ...
Yes Mr. Flute, I am very uncomfortable with IVF being funded at all, let alone 3 cycles. The whole program of IVF is creepy and contemptuous of life. It is like a conveyor belt of humans, most of whom are consigned to the trash heap, or now tested upon at the whim of speculative scientists.“The various techniques of artificial reproduction, which would seem to be at the service of life and which are frequently used with this intention, actually open the door to new threats against life. Apart from the fact that they are morally unacceptable, since they separate procreation from the fully human context of the conjugal act, 14 these techniques have a high rate of failure: not just failure in relation to fertilisation but with regard to the subsequent development of the embryo, which is exposed to the risk of death, generally within a very short space of time. Furthermore, the number of embryos produced is often greater than that needed for implantation in the woman’s womb, and these so-called “spare embryos� are then destroyed or used for research which, under the pretext of scientific or medical progress, in fact reduces human life to the level of simple “biological material� to be freely disposed of.�
Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II, 1995.
The quote comes from the conservative, and I'm assuming Catholic, commentator Marcel White. His blog is titled 'Pro Life, Melbourne.'
Of course, Marcel is welcome to his opinion, but at age 20 (from his blog's bio), he better hope that when he eventually decides to have a family, everything works for him and Mrs White. There's a significant chance it won't. This is something I know a lot about.
My three children are the product of IVF. We reluctantly took this path because we couldn't conceive in the "fully human context of the conjugal act" to quote JP2's screed. The reasons why the natural way didn't work for us are unclear; any health problems we had in this area were minor and didn't prevent many other similarly effected couples from conceiving.
Thankfully, the procedure worked for us without having to go through many cycles that is all too common when playing IVF roulette. At the first try we produced twin girls. Seven years later, much to the surprise of the doctors, my son was born, a product of a frozen embryo conceived from our original egg collection.
How Marcel and his ilk figure that using science to help childless couples conceive is "creepy and contemptuous of life" is beyond me.
I suspect it's no coincidence that, as our Federal Health Minister comes from the conservative Catholic sphere, that this area of health funding is being targeted. First it was a move against the funding of abortions, now cuts to IVF procedures.
It's heartening to hear opposition to the move being voiced from within the government. It's hard to see the proposal going ahead under the current political climate.
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Wow Tony - your story is so exciting. It beats me that the religious critics of IVF can't credit their Gods with the miracle of modern medicine and the human beings' capacities for discovery and knowledge especially when it's put to such beneficial use. Same with stem cell research.
You are so right - Mr White may have an instant and hypocritical change of heart if he and Mrs White hit fertility problems - they have no idea!!!
Spray? I think "Informed comment" is the phrase you were looking for.
I know one of those "rare" couples that a lot of cycles. Eventually despite the statistics it worked. Seeing the stress they went through was bad enough, but having an artificial limit placed upon them would have been disgusting.
I meant 'spray' in the nicest possible way, Flute!
I think I may have to revise the last sentence in the post. Heard on the news this afternoon that it looks like the restrictions will be approved.
We'll have to wait until the budget. But the bollocks are in the vice.
Perhaps people struggling to have children and are desperate to conceive, should talk other people out of destorying their perfectly healthy children.
Me and Mrs White, if my life takes that path, would never use IVF. I can't imagine marrying a person who would disagree with me on foundational issues. Frozen embryos, cycles, and success... it's all a bit shadowy and tragic for me.
My question is, were you overwhelmingly joyous at the news an embryo had successfully 'taken' inside your partner? If so, then perhaps you cannot understand why so many people abort unborn children and treat pregnany as a burden, unwanted and inconvenient.
Do you feel comfortable with 'excess embryos' (read 'lives') being tested on, thrown away or perpetually frozen?
My wife would never have an abortion. On a personal level, it's a course of action she wouldn't take. But she doesn't believe that her view should be foisted onto others. She accepts the right to choose.
A recent survey shows that a significant (70%) majority think their are too many abortions, but a smaller but still significant majority (62%) agreed with abortion on demand. I fall into this category. I'm disturbed that there's so many, but believe it's an ethical minefield and think the decision is best left to the individual.
Touching on Marcel's questions ... I don't think anyone would take the decision to have an abortion lightly. Obviously, the consequences of going through with a pregnancy is, for many people, dire. Perhaps we need to look at those consequences and try to mitigate them.
One good way to prevent abortions is to prevent unwanted pregnancies. However, I suspect Marcel doesn't believe in using contraception, either.
As for 'lives' been frozen .... well, it depends whether you believe embryos are lives. Sure, they carry the genetic code of an individual, but then, so do my toenail clippings. Are embryos people? Depends on your viewpoint.
Marcel is entitled to his opinion and may live his life within whatever ethical framework he chooses. But he, Tony Abbot, and the rest of the conservative religious movement should not be allowed to compel the general population into courses of action based on these ethical beliefs.
Tony Abbot is a pompous jerk.
How dare he say that women need to have a baby for the mother and the father and then for the country as well?
It's my uterus and i can do with it what i want...Maybe when they're trying to find ways for males to have children Mr. Abbot should be his test subject?
Until then, my uterus is mine and he cant tell me how many children i can or can not have.
I made a mistake...it was actually Peter Costello who said we should have 3 babies.
They're both pompous jerks, Christy.
I think they both need a reality check.
Should it even matter to them who is producing children and who are not?
I mean at one time they're saying we should be having 3 children but then they're trying to cut down the funding for IVF...
Well here we are two years later, and nothing has changed. In fact it has got worse! The Government has now legislated so that left over embryo's can be used for research but not offered to infertile couples to birth and raise. The Government says it is for ethical reasons. There is never any ethics behind what they do with IVF laws, only money.