Do you believe IVF is ok?

[Ididivfama]

I’ve been reading a lot of the surrogacy threads recently (and I know that is a different topic) but I was curious to mumsnet posters ideas of ethics and ivf. You can see from my name that we ended up doing it, but I won’t be horribly offended by different views. I’m more curious.

Obviously it’s ’unnatural’ as a process and there is the issue of what happens to any extra blastocysts (I use the term blastocyst as they are pre-embryo stage and calling them embryos makes people view it differently - at least I did!) Even so, would you count leaving blastocysts to decay as abortion? I never did but I’ve read that view now so I’m curious as to how many people view it like that.

As is pointed out on the surrogacy threads - no one is ‘entitled’ to have a child. Is that the same for us ivf parents?

Let me guess...you conceived without any medical intervention?? Ive seen friends struggle with infertility it's unbelievable painful and I am more than happy for my tax to go towards NHS funded IVF cycles. I don't see any ethical concerns with IVF. However with Surrogacy I remain conflicted and am yet to make up my mind.

Yeah – most children needing adoption in this country have faced severe neglect, or have parents who are addicts etc so need to be taken away, and there's a lot with disabilities and high needs.

It's fine if you want to devote your life to giving a child a better chance – but the reality of there being lots of healthy babies given up by mothers nowadays just isn't true. The bar is also quite high to remove a child from their family, particularly as a baby.

Most unwanted pregnancies result in abortions nowadays.

@notanothernana yep privilege is the word. Luckily your ethics didn’t affect my ability to have my two beautiful kids. One of whom is likely to become a scientist and may well be looking to work in medical research. Wouldn’t that be an interesting turn of events?

Let me guess...you conceived without any medical intervention?? Ive seen friends struggle with infertility it's unbelievable painful and I am more than happy for my tax to go towards NHS funded IVF cycles. I don't see any ethical concerns with IVF. However with Surrogacy I remain conflicted and am yet to make up my mind.

Someone could say the same to you re surrogacy. Easy to dismiss it when you could do IVF/could carry a baby

Only if the male is under 40 at the time the embryos were created.

I disagree with IVF because there are other embryos that are destroyed, which I think is unethical.

Phineyj
Thank you for sharing.
Apologies if my post sounded blunt. I'm not troubled by people accessing appropriate care by the way.

It's the can't get what we want now in the UK so we'll go where fewer questions are asked, money speaks, there's enough poorer and vulnerable women who might "volunteer" to gestate a baby or have her eggs harvested, have fewer rights sort of scenarios I'm concerned about.

When do you think the embryos become life exactly?

@Ididivfama at the moment of conception.

There are countless unwanted babies in India, China, Romania, Russia and many other countries @StacieBenson . We should review the adoption policies to prioritise these babies

What's quite interesting about this argument is that with the contraceptive coil you can actually get a fertilised embryo every month – the coil just prevents it from implanting, so it dies. So in a way there's types of "contraception" that also kill embryos.

It's where you draw the line I guess

Infertility is defined as a disease. The NHS treats diseases so why the provision of IVF on the NHS winds so many up bemuses me.

I agree with this

Do you mean when they start mixing the egg and sperm? But it takes 3-5 days to even know if they’ve ‘taken’ and then they’re frozen or put into someone’s womb. They often still don’t work as are still ‘pre embryo’ stage.

Only because it is obvious they won't develop and won't be viable.

Not in all cases. But yes you can't predict necessarily what numbers you will get.

Perhaps, but the situation is that you cannot just adopt these babies like that. I’m curious to know your situation. Have you adopted any?

No problem with the concept of IVF but I do have some ethical concerns about using IVF to make designer babies. But I don't really have a reason why I'm uncomfortable with it

I also feel weird about this including sex selection.

I feel very weird about designer babies / sex selection for anything other than genuine health reasons.

For me I think it boils down to a belief that having a baby shouldn’t be like choosing a sofa

If you have more frozen ones then are required, I thought the "excess" ones were destroyed.

People have different opinions on what should be paid by the taxpayer, not really all that bemusing.

Maybe someone has body dysmorphia and wants to change a body part. Their mental health would benefit. But they may be asked to pay.

It's not as cut and dry as 'nature says no' though.

In my case, chemotherapy (multiple rounds of) and cancer said no. So IVF was our only option.
It had nothing to do with nature and everything to do with the science that saved my life.

Hmm. The substance and the spin of that quote are quite different! It says there is an increase but that because of the research design they can’t tell what the cause/mechanism is. That’s unsurprising as you can’t do a trial where you match potential parents then give half IVF. There are quite a few studies showing increased birth defects, the cancer rate may be less established. I say this as a 39 yr old with no children who has been TTC since March last year, I’m not being smug or mean or anything, it’s something I’ve read about because it troubles me personally.

Don't see anything wrong with IVF but I feel a huge guilt and sorrow at the other side where I have my baby, about the 4 embryos remaining. If the embryologist had chosen another than day we wouldn't have this specific boy in my arms now. It makes my blood run cold. We can't afford another and after a traumatic birth I can't imagine another but we're paying for the storage fees for those blastocysta as we can't let go yet. I had no inkling of this part of the emotional toll when embarking on IVF, which we had because my husband has a varicocele causing low sperm count. I wonder who those little blastocysts would be and its torture tbh. I never thought I'd be that way but having a child changes you, it has ne anyway. Science and logic falls to the wayside.