Betsy linked to a story about a study showing that women using IVF have a 4 times greater chance of having a stillbirth than women who conceived naturally. Here is the link to that study. I’m continually amazed at how lightly people take these risks. Read more…
With all the talk on here about artificial insemination lately, I thought I’d throw this brief article in too.
by Jared Yee
Confused by claims and counter-claims about climate change? Can’t decide whether it’s your patriotic duty to be a sceptic or a true believer? Well, you have it easy. How about deciding whether IVF is good for a baby’s health or not? Three similar, but conflicting stories appeared in the media this week. Read more…
My friend, and Ruth Institute Board member, Jennifer Lahl pointed me to this article by the mother of a woman who died of colon cancer at the age of 31. Colon cancer in a person this young, with no family history of colon cancer, is most unusual. The mother’s hypothesis? I’ll let her tell:
As a physician, I have found another way to bring meaning to my daughter’s death. In the absence of a family history of colon cancer, this disease in a young person is extremely uncommon. Jessica was an egg donor for in vitro fertilization (IVF) for infertile couples several years before becoming ill. Egg donation involves repeated self-injection of female hormones Read more…
An article at TheCatholicLeader.com laments that the Parliament of the Australian state of Queensland recently passed a law that extensively liberalized the use of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART).
Of particular importance to opponents of the bill (such as KidsRightsCount.org) was the issue of surrogacy, especially as it relates to same-sex parenting.
If you go to their website and click on <multimedia> at the top of the page you can find excellent videos that discuss ART and its legal, moral, and social ramifications. (Surrogacy & A Child’s Sense of Identity and The New Stolen Generation, for example.)
Understand that in America, as things stand now, there would be no controversy over any of this. That’s because (what very few people realize is) in the United States there are fewer regulations on ART than probably any other developed nation in the world – or almost any other nation in the world period, for that matter. You can do virtually anything you want reproductively in America without any consideration for how it affects anyone involved, least of all the children conceived.
Does anyone (besides me) have any concerns about that?
Here is a podcast of my debate at Columbia Law School on same sex marriage. Listen for my opponent’s dismissal of the feelings of the Donor Conceived Persons. I can tell you: a chill went through the room when she said that. Even students who generally support ssm were surprised and I sensed, dismayed, by her cavalier response. See what you think.
Thanks to those who participated in February’s marriage quiz. Once again, the question was:
What percentage of Artificial Reproductive Technology patients are married couples, and what percentage are unmarried women?
A. The vast majority of ART patients, about 75%, are married couples.
B. It is split about evenly between married and unmarried women.
C. It is evenly split three ways: about a third married women, about a third partnered lesbians and about a third single women.
D. None of the above.
Click here and scroll down to view the answer.
Great article by a Ruth Institute Academic Advisory Board Member.
By Jennifer Lahl, CBC National Director
Newsweek recently reported a story about a 51-year-old man, who between 1980 and 1994 donated his sperm twice a week in order to make cash for medical school and to nurture his altruistic desires to help infertile women. Kirk Maxey states, “I loved having kids, and to have these women doomed to wandering around with no family didn’t seem right, and it’s easy to come up with a semen donation.”
Don’t get me started. Read more…
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