Focus on Fertility Clinics-The New York Times

This article was sparked by the recent headline where a single mother of six got pregnant again through invitro fertilization, and had another eight babies. The government and other professional associations, have been pushing fertility doctors to reduce that number(one-third of all invitro cases produce twins or more). In many cases health consequences come with multiple births such as infant death, low birth weights, long-term disabilities. Also, thousands of dollars of doctor bills that go along with these consequences. Last year, the Association of Fertility Doctors adopted some guidelines to encourage one embryo transfer if the woman is under 35 and if the woman is older, she is allowed up to five. As I read on I found the United States has no laws to enforce any of those guidelines but the CDC is watching these clinics closely. Especially since only 11% of invitro cases involve implanting one embryo. One problem with this whole system boils down again to the United States' healthcare. The cost of invitro is usually around twelve thousand, and with insurance refusing to pay, the doctors better get it right the first time, so they implant many embryos to increase the chance. In some countries though, doctors can only perform this if the person has insurance and sometimes there is a cap on costs. This way, women can focus less on the finanical part of it and they dont have to worry so much about getting it right the first time. But of course this is not the case in the U.S. In some large cities, sales pitches aren't uncommon to hear due to competition in the area. One doctor even offers a ninety percent refund if invitro does not work. According to CDC reports, 134,260 procedures were done last year and there were more than 483 clinics across the country. More than 50,000 children a year are born as a result of in vitro fertilization in the United States. It is a one billion dollar business. Since our society revolves around money, the ethical issues won't matter to doctors, insurance companies or anyone else for that matter. Ms. Suleman who had the octuplets was struggling to begin with because her first six kids and in fact, I saw an interview with her mother who was raising the kids herself! I believe if there was better insurance options for women who can't get pregnant, the finanical pressure will be lessened or off. But of course there are always exceptions, like Ms. Suleman, who do this for fame or maybe her own tv show and it does nothing but hurt those who truly want to have babies for the right reasons.