The fertility industry is relatively new, having taken off in 1978 with the in vitro fertilization (IVF) and birth of Louise Brown, the world's first test-tube baby. Since then, reproductive medicine has been woefully unregulated and out of control. Can you say, "Octomom"?
Medicine Without Morals
Last year when Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets, the mainstream and celebrity-reality-media jumped all over the story. They claimed Dr. Michael Kamrava, Suleman's physician, was a rogue doctor-turned-cowboy in the "wild wild west" of California fertility medicine who did not follow professional guidelines. And yet, Dr. James Grifo, a fertility specialist at NYU School of Medicine said, "I don't think it's our job to tell them how many babies they're allowed to have. I am not a policeman for reproduction in the United States." Dr. Grifo, you are right, you are not a reproduction policeman. You are a medical doctor, a member of a profession with fiduciary duties and obligations to its patients—that means both mothers and children. Women were never meant to have litter births.
Legislation Without Limits
Much has already been lost in the modern medical profession as it consistently avoids roping in the baby-making business. And sadly, legislators shy away from passing laws that could restore some sanity and safety to fertility medicine, as they fall in line with bullying "choice" and "rights" rhetoric.
During the last five years, I have directly experienced the uphill battle of advocating for fertility-industry legislative regulation. Some bills have proposed a national egg donor registry to track the long-term health of egg donors, as we track U.S. organ donors. Other bills seek to prohibit large payments to young egg "donors". We have sought to protect the rights of children created by IVF, advocating for their right to know their biological parents. A Kansas bill that I helped write would compel the state to monitor and report the activities of agencies handling human eggs, sperm, and embryos—a common sense bill that would generate critical data about this baby-booming industry.
Of course, the 6.5 billion-dollar fertility industry would like nothing better than to maintain the unregulated and unlegislated conditions. They are not about to take new limits, or existing restrictions, lying down. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, led largely by fertility doctors, is already pushing against existing egg-donation regulations in several states. The resistance is powerful and predictable.
Whatever It Takes to Procreate
Chills still run down my spine when I recall testifying to the Georgia State Senate in 2009. I walked into the packed, standing-room-only hearing, swarming with reporters and a bay of television cameras. But what really caught me off guard were the throngs of women who held pictures of their IVF babies, accusing me of trying to steal their reproductive rights.
Similar outpourings of hysterical resistance just cropped up in Arizona regarding legislation that would ban compensating women (apart from their out-of-pocket expenses) for their eggs. Even more disconcerting are the doctors who not only encourage such dramatics, but willingly pay women huge sums of money for their eggs. One doctor asked, "How else are infertile couples going to get eggs if they can't pay for them?" The answer is, "The same way a kidney recipient gets a kidney donation."
Thankfully, organ buying and selling is condemned. Donating an organ saves a life, but in the case of egg 'donation', nobody's life hangs in the balance; the medical profession vehemently resists egg-donation regulation because of the money at stake, not the lives to be saved. Why else would they be willing to risk the health of young egg donors, who (by their own admission) do not receive follow-up for the negative impacts on their health.
The Murky Waters of IVF
The first IVF children are only now entering adulthood. Most are still under 20. Sadly, no long-term studies have been conducted on their health and well-being. This constitutes medical malpractice in light of the many risks that the fertility industry is aware of but tries to suppress. Here are just a few examples:
-Researchers have found a five-to-ten-percent chromosomal difference between IVF children and naturally conceived children.
-IVF children are at increased risk of birth defects such as neural tube defects and low birth weight, which predispose them to obesity, hypertension and Type 2 diabetes.
-In a new study from Europe (where IVF is heavily regulated and monitored) looking at 20,000 singleton pregnancies, a four-fold increased risk of stillbirths appeared with children conceived through IVF or Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) technology, when compared to children conceived naturally or through non-IVF fertility treatment.
-IVF displays a 60 percent failure rate. Recent U.S. data reports that of 140,795 cycles, only 56,790 resulted in births.
Much more should be done to insure that infertile couples know the financial and health risks to themselves, to their future children, and to third-party participants, including egg/sperm donors and gestational surrogates.
Legislating Morality
This month, I will be in Kansas to testify on Senate Bill 509, which creates a monitoring program to collect data on the state's fertility industry. I anticipate the same old resistance: "IVF is safe! The horror stories are anecdotal! Patients are already well informed! Regulation is a burden that infringes on people's reproductive rights!"
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine has already announced its opposition to the bill and has engaged their local state members to help defeat it. But the political wind is changing, bringing a fresh political will, in some state legislators, to change the practice of reproductive medicine in their states. These leaders now see the need to protect constituents who have been ignored by the fertility industry: those left infertile, children who have a right to know who their biological parents are, and reproductive consumers who still have little or no access to much-needed studies detailing actual risks.
The fertility-industry drivers do not want to check their practices. But even if they manage to temporarily block sensible legislation, eventually the facts will catch up with them and they will have to answer to the public.
As concerned citizens, we have the obligation to speak up and encourage our lawmakers to protect the defenseless by curbing the blatant excesses of an industry run rampant.
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