IVF Poll

[percival]

[Poll #271874]

Feel free to be honest! A good friend of mine defended the "no" vote to me recently, and I can see her point in that IVF is a "luxury" intervention - you are not curing a life threatening illness, you are just helping a couple indulge in their dream of a child.

Comments

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

Until the world population drops below 6bn again, then no. We don't need more kids, same as we don't need more elderly people to live to 100+ and be unable to do things for themselves for years. The priority has to be that the planet reproduces in sustainable numbers.

I'd sooner see the NHS invest in health promotion, and helping people to adopt older kids - supporting interventions for ADHD, funding nutrition research, helping the kids that we do have live better, and funding research into HIV/AIDS. In particular it would be good to see money invested in Sign Language, Speech Therapy and other communication related projects.

We have thousands of kids in the UK that need long term foster parents, and who can't be adopted. Worldwide, there's millions of AIDS orphans that need homes.

I understand the very real desire to have children - I've watched friends suffer through infertility. I think that possibly a part-payment on the NHS might be an option, where the treatment is meanstested, or else the NHS gives out an interest free loan to cover treatment.

*tongue firmly in cheek from here on*
Perhaps it might be an idea to make all infertility treatment free on the NHS, but a requirement that all seeking treatment must pass the suitability guidelines for fostering/adopting. There would be no such thing as a private clinic, and in order to prove their suitability as parents they should foster a child as is deemed appropriate.