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Words at War: In Vitro Fertilization

Circumventing biology is wrong

by Published: Sep 12, 2012

“John and Kate Plus Eight,” “Conception Story” and a whole slurry of TLC docu-drama real­ity TV glo­ri­fies the use of in vitro fer­til­iza­tion. I’ve watched sev­eral of these types of shows, unable to pull my face away from the tele­vi­sion train wreck, and have come to a few conclusions.

First, in vitro fer­til­iza­tion is not cheap. WebMD reports that the aver­age cost for a suc­cess­ful in vitro pro­ce­dure in the United States is $12,400. That does not fac­tor in if you will need addi­tional assisted repro­duc­tive tech­nolo­gies, an egg donor or a sperm donor. Often these lit­tle extras make the bill total to over $25,000.

Finding that kind of cash lying around is not some­thing a typ­i­cal fam­ily can afford to do. Oddly enough, some health care providers will cover some of the costs.

I’m not one to pick on peo­ple for spend­ing their money poorly, but in a world where social injus­tice is ram­pant, $25,000 can save hun­dreds of lives. In the case of fam­i­lies that choose in vitro, it makes a new life instead of sav­ing some­one already alive.

This brings me to point two: adop­tion. Somehow these fam­i­lies who choose to waste their cash and hours of time con­sum­ing fer­til­ity cock­tails don’t seem to think any other child is good enough for them. Adoption isn’t always cheap, but in some instances with a $25,000 bud­get you could adopt a few chil­dren who need a family.

In vitro fer­til­iza­tion is one of the most self­ish things a cou­ple can do. It basi­cally looks at all other chil­dren in the world that des­per­ately want and need fam­i­lies, and then tells them, “You’re not good enough because we have supe­rior DNA.”

The point I’m try­ing to get across is chil­dren shouldn’t be made in a lab. If you have to go through such stren­u­ous means to con­ceive, maybe you shouldn’t have kids in the first place. It can lead to all kinds of stranger-than-reality sit­u­a­tions, such as a Chicago woman who gave birth to her own grand­child. Or, my per­sonal favorite, a Supreme Court case that had to answer the ques­tion about posthu­mous con­cep­tion. Karen Capato gave birth to twins 18 months AFTER their father had died and her case went to court because she was try­ing to receive social secu­rity survivor’s ben­e­fits for her children.

If there is any doubt left about why in vitro fer­til­iza­tion is wrong, look at another bur­den on soci­ety: Nadya Suleman, a.k.a. Octomom. With six test-tube babies already in her uterus, this woman decides it’s a good idea to have one more, and ends up with eight more. She paid for all of her in vitro treat­ments using set­tle­ment money from a back injury, but still used pub­lic assis­tance (wel­fare) to sup­port the children.

Are all sit­u­a­tions like those above? Of course not. But there is one thing they all have in com­mon: self­ish par­ents who can’t stand the idea of not hav­ing their own peer­age. To these types of peo­ple, any­thing less than their own flesh and blood just isn’t per­fect enough to be both­ered with.

Related Posts

  1. Words at War: In Vitro Fertilization
  2. Words @ War: Mary Benson
  3. Words @ War: Con
  4. Words @ War: Pro
  5. Words @ War: Jessica Smith
 
 
  • http://www.facebook.com/roseanger Rosemary Anger

    Average cost of domes­tic adop­tion $30,000-$50,000; inter­na­tional $25000. Successful IVF $12400. I think I can do the math for myself.

    • http://twitter.com/jackieangrrr Jax Anger

      Those costs are only incurred when using a pri­vate adop­tion agency. The aver­age cost of a pub­lic adop­tion is Free-$5,000.

  • Mrs. Silence Dogood

    An inter­est­ing arti­cle, although, like the heroes of old, there is more here than meets the eye.

    There is another aspect to adop­tion. Many of these chil­dren come from very trou­bled back­grounds, and espe­cially in the cases of pub­lic adop­tions, this can be a prob­lem. There is also the issue of match­ing. In pub­lic adop­tions, chil­dren are matched to you. Someone else often chooses the child you will be adopt­ing. These chil­dren from pub­lic adop­tions are also very rarely infants. What of the peo­ple who really want the expe­ri­ence of rais­ing a baby? Babysitting for some­one else is quite dif­fer­ent than rais­ing your own child.

    In the case of a pri­vate adop­tion, the cost and risks are much higher. While the child usu­ally tran­si­tions straight from the hos­pi­tal to the adop­tive cou­ple, there is also the risk of the birth par­ent chang­ing their mind. Then, the adop­tive cou­ple is stuck with med­ical bills, coun­sel­ing bills, and god knows what else.

    Any thoughts, Ms. Anger?

    • Mike Hunt

      How about, don’t have kids and con­tribute to the con­tin­ued over­pop­u­la­tion of the world?