Eight years after our marriage, the boys were born. They were not IVF babies although it took us 2 years of trying before they were conceived. I was then 32 and Andrew 42. Andrew looked and in truth was healthier and fitter than any young man 20 years his junior. Therefore at no time during my pregnancy nor the early years thereafter was there any hint of guilt that perhaps, just perhaps it might be unfair to the kids, and therefore selfish on our parts, that we had delayed parenthood for so long.
Then a health crisis struck when the kids were aged 6, wee babies in just Year 1 Primary. Their daddy aged 49, was diagnosed with colon cancer. Surgery and chemotherapy followed. During those harrowing six months, I began to feel the ugly pain of conscience for the first time. I felt that we had done any unjustice to our kids. It is hardly uncommon for major health problems to strike once you are 50 and over. Why did we not see this before? It is hardly fair to the kids. Thankfully we have put all that behind us now ** touch wood **.
Several years ago, there was a debate here in Oz about the rights of lesbian couples to state-funded IVF services. At no stage was there any talk of the rights of the unborn child yet-to-be fetus.
Today, yet again, I read about a blind and diabetic 62 year old woman, Janis Wulf, giving birth through IVF in California, USA.
There are legislation galore protecting the rights of the unborn fetus in the arena of stem cell research despite the enormous benefits to humankind of such research. Yet ironically there does not appear to be much concern for the rights of the yet to be fetus in the liberal availability of IVF services.
It is ludicrous to think that something that does not yet exist, the unformed fetus, warrants no consideration in the making of IVF ethical guidelines.
Is IVF all about money? Does this mean that anyone who can afford private IVF clinics has a right to IVF? It appears that in the real world, money talks. IVF clinics need to survive. To survive they need dosh. Any dosh.
be. boswell said,
January 3, 2008 at 2:04 pm
i was just as shocked as you were. . .what doctor thinks it is okay to allow a 62 year old, blind, diabetic woman that option? the doctor who did the procedure should check himself, was it money or a scientific curiousity. . .probably a bit of both, but didn’t scientific curiousity allow the use of medical experimentation on prisoners of war in the axis powers during ww2? doctor needs his medical license jerked.