Why IVF may be a disaster in waiting...
and should only ever be used in extreme cases of need. I saw this article today and had to write to the journalist:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/flying-solo-more-women-abandon-search-for-prince-charming-and-opt-to-have-ivf-baby-20121110-294u5.html
Perhaps in the name of balance and responsibility you might also write an article warning of the dangers.
Until a generation of IVF babies have grown up and lived what amounts to normal lives and their children have done the same there is no gaurantee that IVF will not have side-effects. Already as many IVF babies reach the age of 30 they are discovering a large increase in mental illness - depression, schizophrenia. You might do some research. Being created in a test-tube, forcibly fertilised, forcibly implanted will have an impact. We just don't know what it is as yet although we do know that IVF babies are prone to problems and we are beginning to realise there are other, even greater problems once they grow up.
IVF has become a business and many of those encouraging IVF may well be found to be criminally culpable in the years to come.
On the psychological/emotional side, given the demonstrated trauma of adoptions in past years where children have been denied their biological parents, there is a potential disaster awaiting those who 'create' children who will never know a mother or a father, let alone a biological one.
Your article makes it all seem so easy and so harmless when it is in fact the very opposite. As any parent of grown children knows the easy bit is the cute bit. Once your child becomes an adult is when it gets hard and if that adult is going to have physiological problems because of IVF or psychological problems because it is missing a parent, then that constitutes a trauma beyond imagining.
Erring on the side of caution might be a wise bit of advice for anyone who thinks IVF is an easy way out and who may well find that after 12 years of the 'easy' they end up with 50 years of the 'hard' with varying degrees of mental and physical illness.
Regards,
Roslyn Ross
p.s. as a former journalist I am still idealistic enough to believe that providing balance is a journalistic responsibility.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/flying-solo-more-women-abandon-search-for-prince-charming-and-opt-to-have-ivf-baby-20121110-294u5.html
Perhaps in the name of balance and responsibility you might also write an article warning of the dangers.
Until a generation of IVF babies have grown up and lived what amounts to normal lives and their children have done the same there is no gaurantee that IVF will not have side-effects. Already as many IVF babies reach the age of 30 they are discovering a large increase in mental illness - depression, schizophrenia. You might do some research. Being created in a test-tube, forcibly fertilised, forcibly implanted will have an impact. We just don't know what it is as yet although we do know that IVF babies are prone to problems and we are beginning to realise there are other, even greater problems once they grow up.
IVF has become a business and many of those encouraging IVF may well be found to be criminally culpable in the years to come.
On the psychological/emotional side, given the demonstrated trauma of adoptions in past years where children have been denied their biological parents, there is a potential disaster awaiting those who 'create' children who will never know a mother or a father, let alone a biological one.
Your article makes it all seem so easy and so harmless when it is in fact the very opposite. As any parent of grown children knows the easy bit is the cute bit. Once your child becomes an adult is when it gets hard and if that adult is going to have physiological problems because of IVF or psychological problems because it is missing a parent, then that constitutes a trauma beyond imagining.
Erring on the side of caution might be a wise bit of advice for anyone who thinks IVF is an easy way out and who may well find that after 12 years of the 'easy' they end up with 50 years of the 'hard' with varying degrees of mental and physical illness.
Regards,
Roslyn Ross
p.s. as a former journalist I am still idealistic enough to believe that providing balance is a journalistic responsibility.
posted by Roslyn Ross at 1:32 pm
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