It came to my attention yesterday (thanks to LFCA) that Georgia has proposed legislation (SB 169) that would virtually shut down IVF in Georgia. The bill calls for many regulations, but the following I find most troubling.
-Couples under 40 could only attempt to fertilize 2 eggs through in-vitro, a max of two embryos would be potentially fertilized and transferred. No freezing allowed.
-Couples over 40 could attempt to fertilize and transfer up to 3 embryos with again no freezing allowed.
The authors of this bill obviously timed out the proposal of this bill correctly with the Octo-Mom controversy. They are trying to say that this bill would protect women and children from multiple births. But let's talk about what will actually happen if this bill is passed:
-No more in-vitro in Georgia. I would have a hard time believing that any patient, let alone any RE would use IVF as treatment under these conditions.
-Freezing would not be an option- Sometimes a patient hyperstimulates from the drugs, and it is not safe to complete the transfer. In this scenario, the doctor and patient would have no other choice (since freezing isn't an option) to risk the patient's health by continuing with the transfer.
-Patients that have little time left and/or egg supply would not be able to have embryos for future use.
-More high order multiple births in Georgia. One of the purposes of IVF is to try to prevent high order multiples. If this bill was passed, couples in Georgia would have no other option but to opt for using injectable cycles to try to conceive. Everyone agrees that this treatment option has a much higher rate of high order multiples.
As the infertility community, we have to speak up on this issue. There are already headlines out there that read, "Bill would prohibit octuplet mother scenario in Georgia." This is not accurate. The headlines should read "Bill would end IVF in Georgia." Speak out through a link provided on the RESOLVE website or comment on these articles with the right information. A simple search of "Georgia bill" in Google News will make your stomach turn. There is so much misinformation out there about this bill. Don't let them fool you and your neighbors, this bill was created as an attempt to use the Octo-Mom controversy to end infertility treatments in Georgia.
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43 comments:
Amen.
I agree...and it makes me sick to my stomach to even think about it!
P.S. It would serve the lawmakers right if the high-order multiple birth rate went up because of an increase in IUIs... (although it would suck for IFers)
I live in GA and I am appalled at the thought of this bill passing. My RE is speaking in front of the GA Senate today and their office was handing out flier to everyone yesterday asking us to send a message to the members on the committee to vote NO.
I am a 41 year woman who is currently going through my 4th IVF. I have been unsuccessful in the last 3 IVFS and I cannot imagine if this bill were in place what I would have done. I had 19 mature eggs, 14 fertilized and when I did PGD testing NONE of them were normal. This scenerio would not have been possible under the new law and at an advanced maternal age I don't have time to wait.
Thanks for bringing this to everyones attention
Oh wow!!!! My jaw is to the floor, I'm just stunned!
I am terrified by the language that the embryo "is not the poperty of any person or entity" and "Any contractual provision identifying the living in vitro embryo as the property of any party shall be null and void."
I have six embryos left. To me, they are my children. I am outraged that the anybody thinks it is okay to take them away from me.
You are exactly right on every one of your points.
Another thing to think about, especially now, is the economic implications. If this bill were to pass, it would drive out of the state and industry that employs hundreds of people and generates millions in revenues each year.
Thank you so much for this information Courtney.
I just can't believe they are trying to pass this. We can't get financial help for IF treatments like they can in CA, but we can be limited on how many embies are transferred and frozen. This is uncalled for!
What sucks even more is that I get IF treatment in GA!!!!!
And another thing, when I do see news stories on this, they usually end with a list of countries that have imposed restrictions on the number of embryos to transfer. They fail to mention that in those countries the government is paying for the treatment.
When a couple is paying for their own treatment, it can be the most cost effective way to get multiple embryos in the first cycle and have some frozen for subsequent cycles. Even with insurance, this can be the easiest thing for a couple.
I just left the State Senate hearing room. I am pleased to report that this horrible bill was sent for further study to subcommittee by Senator David Adelman. This appeared to be the best outcome at this time.
I love your blog! I hope that this bill is not passed for all the Georgians out there desperate to have a baby and IVF being thier only option. If passed, it not only risks Georgians, but other states could follow. I live in Ohio, but I support all of you in Georgia facing this terrible and purely ignorant legislation. I have had two children from successful IVF cycles. We have 2 embryos frozen. I can not imagine any doctor in good conscience proceding with and IVF cycle under these conditions. How do you choose only 2 embryos? I feel, as many who proceed with IVF that all embryos have the potential for life. Clearly there is a complete ignorance about infertlity and the implications of this bill on the part of these representatives. Senators and representatives are elected to reflect the ideas and wishes of the people, not push their own agenda. Good luck to all of you attmepting IVF!
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I will have to check it out. This is ridiculous. Hopefully it DOESN't pass!!
Thanks for sharing.
Have you looked to see who is behind sponsoring this bill? It was written by two lawyers from n organization called "BioEthics Defense Fund". Their medical expert is Dr. Maureen L. Condic, an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah. She is a Neurologist. I don't know how that qualifies her to be an expert on reproduction.
Also there was a large influence from a strict Catholic group that helped to write this legislation. The BioEthics web site also stated "“Importantly, the wording of SB169 attempts to take Catholic concerns about IVF into account.”
I am glad to see that the Catholics want to limit our ability to have children by confining to their religion. No wonder their numbers keep getting smaller every year.
This bill is ridiculous and I hope it never makes it out of committee. It is nothing more than a religious attempt to do away with IVF because religious zealots don't agree with the process.
I am one of those religious zealots (Catholic) who believes that human life is sacred and needs to be protected from fertilization to natural death. IVF is a selfish procedure that treats human life as property and a commodity to be frozen and/or experimented on and/or selectively reduced (aborted), instead of as life made in the image and likeness of God to be respected and protected at all stages no matter where it is made (womb or petri dish).
Do I have sympathy for those who would like to have children and can't? Yes, but IVF takes God and His perfect way out of the picture. Children are a gift from God, not a right or property. I know that there are Catholics who use IVF, but believe me they are participating in evil and they need to be prayed for so that they come to an understanding of God's perfect Will for them.
After reading these comments, there must be many unhappy and uninformed people out there when it comes to the Sanctity of Life. These comments say to me that we are living in a culture of the Utility of Life or the Quality of Life.
Religion (Moral) worldview does not necessarily have to compete with a secular worldview if we are not acting from emotion but from facts and science. So I am glad that SB169 will be studied. That will open the dialogue on a legal, philosophic and scientific level which is where this should be since it is going to be a statute.
In the meantime, all of you are in my prayers.
I have a beautiful 5 month old baby girl in my arms right only because of my great doctors and IVF. I was sick yesterday and for the first time in my life I wrote every one of my senators. I'm outraged that the Octuplet mom can cause such hysteria. I urge every Georgian to write your senator today and make sure this bill does not pass. No part of this bill makes ANY sense. If they knew the process of IVF they clearly would not have put this bill together. I makes me sick to think that a couple of Catholics and a miseducated senator thinks they could control the lives of thousands of Georgians. I think we should form a group to get infertility treatments covered for all Georgian! I wonder how they would feel about that?
Wow Psychdoc...I can't believe you wrote such hateful, judgmental things in the name of religion!
Please don't pray for any of us, I would rather you put your energy into becoming a nicer person.
Thank you so much for posting this. I hope our community bans together to fight this bill every step of the way. I don't understand how senators, that are not medical professionals, feel they can mandate bills to control how and what we are allowed to do to our bodies. How can they determine what is in the best interests of the individual patients. Isn't that what they issued medical licenses to the doctors for? Leave medicine to the experts and punish those that act unethically and don't act in the best interest of their patients.
Psychdoc - I appreciate the fact that you have strong beliefs, I was the one who posted the religious zealot comment. I am an Episcopalian myself and I don't believe that IVF interferes with God anymore than having a stint or pacemaker placed in your heart interferes with God.
I don't believe that you or anyone else has a right to impose their religious beliefs upon me, my wife or anyone for that matter. There is a separation of church and state for that particular reason.
If it doesn't follow your religious beliefs, then by all means don't use IVF to conceive if you or your family has issues with that. Just don't use your beliefs to try to get a law passed to infringe on my ability to do so if I want to do that.
When asked why IVF might be immoral, people will usually mention the extra embryos that are frozen or discarded. Such embryos are certainly a serious concern, but they are not the primary reason the Church insists the procedure is immoral. Even if IVF were done without making any extra embryos at all, this way of making babies would still be morally objectionable, because the procedure strikes at the very core and meaning of marital sexuality. It substitutes an act of laboratory manipulation for an act of bodily union between spouses. It turns procreation into production. IVF is really the flip-side of contraception: rather than trying to have sex without babies, we try to have babies without sex. Because many Americans have come to view sex largely in terms of recreation, ignoring its procreative orientation, they have lost touch with the grave violations that occur both in contraceptive sex and in making babies in test tubes.
Clearly, the moral violations that occur in IVF do not reflect upon the child, who is innocent. It is not the baby's fault in any way. The child has no control over how he or she got here. Regardless of how a baby comes into the world, whether by IVF, whether by adultery, by pre-marital sex, or even by cloning, that baby is always a gift and a blessing. The problem with IVF is not with the child, but with a decision made by the parents concerning how to pursue the satisfaction of their own desire for a child. In other words, babies, even when very much desired, should not be brought into the world by making use of disordered means such as adultery, pre-marital sex, IVF, or cloning. They should be brought into the world only within that intimate love-giving moment of the marital embrace. Children are entitled to come into being as the fruit of a singular parental love that is uniquely manifested in the spousal moment of bodily surrender to each other. Through the incredibly rich language of the parents' bodies, through their body to body contact, the new body of their child is engendered. In their one-flesh union, they enflesh new life. That intimate bodily embrace is a sacred action that only spouses may share, and it represents the unique and privileged locus, by God's design, in which human love is translated into new life. IVF violates this design by replacing that love-giving act with an act of production, whereby we manufacture our own children in petri dishes and test tubes, as if they were products or objects to be manhandled at will. In this way, IVF incidentalizes and adulterates sex, reducing it to another arena for manipulation according to our own desires. When we take this immoral step, others quickly follow, including the freezing or even the discarding of our own children, as if they were a form of medical waste. By making test tube babies, we first violate the sacred human act by which we hand on life. It is then but a short step to go further and violate the very life itself that we produce in the laboratory.
Is it not reasonable and right to insist, as the Church does, that new human life should be the fruit of married love, carried out through bodily self-giving between spouses, this act which allows each partner to enrich the other with the total gift of himself or herself? The marital act embodies spousal love directly, exclusively and authentically. Can we say the same for IVF, where the woman upsets her delicate hormonal cycles and subjects herself to repetitive injections with powerful drugs to make her body produce unnaturally large numbers of eggs, and where the man may be expected to go into a back room with salacious magazines and videos to "provide a sample"? Can we really say that IVF embodies spousal love in an authentic and exclusive way when a lab technician ends up being the causal agent of the pregnancy, instead of the spouses themselves through a sacred act proper to their married love? By any stretch, can we honestly believe that IVF is faithful to God's design for marriage?
We sometimes tend to brush the ungainly and unsightly parts of the procedure under the rug and instead try to focus on the result, the baby, so as to mitigate the disturbing reality of what we are really engaging in. Some couples also may rest their approval for IVF on a perfunctory assumption, namely: "We have a right to a child when we get married, so any means, even IVF, should be okay." But the deeper truth is that we never have a right to a baby. A child is not our property or our possession. Rather, a child is a gift, one we hope God will send us, one we stand ready and eager to receive, but certainly not an entitlement or a right for us. When we marry, we properly have a right to those beautiful, life-giving acts we call marital acts, which open us up to the mysterious divine spark at the heart of human love. Those remarkable marital acts are the only human acts appropriately ordered to engendering the incredible gift of new human life.
This was written by: Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk. It couldn't have been said more beautifully. Ponder it and then thank God for the Catholic Church being the lone voice crying out in the desert.
Courtney I'm so glad you posted this story. I had no idea and I live 20 min. from GA and get GA news. I agree with all (well almost all) of the previous posts. Although Octo-Mom and her doctors were irresponsible, the majority of people out there doing IVF come from families with 2 incomes and a stable environment with which to raise a child. You can't let the irresponsible actions of a few individuals in California dictate life on the other end of the country. And you make a good point about IVF being the SAFEST way to prevent HOM. Jon and Kate Gosselin conceived through IUI-not IVF. I really hope this subcommittee gets all the facts before imposing such restrictions.
PsychDoc, your opinion on this issue is just that YOUR OPINION. I should not forced on honest hard-working people that have suffered the pains of infertility which I'm assuming you know nothing about. IVF is NOT taking God out of the equation; if it was EVERYONE that does IVF would be pregnant. And about God's "perfect way"...do you think IVF babies come out with 2 heads or something??? Really...it looks to me like you are the one who is unhappy and uninformed. Evil comes from the heart and to so easily cast that word about to people you don't even know just shows me that you're the one who needs the prayers.
So Anonymous...
Do married people who do IVF not make love?? Seriously, get your facts straight. I can't wait til my husband gets home and I can wrap my arms around him
Um...I never said any such thing. I believe the facts are straight... no need to twist words. Re-read what was written. Pax Amor Christi
Well I'm happy to report that the committee decided to send this bill for further research.
I would like to respond to the anonymous and psychdoc. I respect your religious belief but my God is the same God you believe in and He gave me a beautiful gift through IVF. My husband and I tried for 3 years to have a child and it upsets me that you believe that I should not be allowed to be a parent purely because I have some infertility issues. CLEARLY you have never had to go through this process. Ever step of IVF is incredibly difficult and with out my faith in God I would not have made it through. Every step of this process is still looked over by God. No matter how perfect all the parts are, there is always a chance that the cycle can be unsuccessful. I look at my baby everyday and see a miracle from God. I pray that no one you or you yourself will ever have to deal with infertility. IVF is there for all of God's people to have a chance at children. I like to see where God has told you that IVF was a sin.
Dear ChristianMother,
Please do not assume that I do not know the suffering you and many other IVF couples have gone through. Your precious baby is most certainly a child of God. No one is saying he or she is not.
Also, I am certainly not saying that b/c of infertility you shouldn't be allowed to be a parent. I'm sure you already know this, but there are many, many children in the world that need good parents like yourself and other infertile couples.
Pax
I'm so sickened by this bill. If more people turn to IUI as a result, they're going to end up with more HOMs (speaking as an HOM mom, myself who is now seeking eSET as an alternative to having a SINGLETON subsequent pregnancy).
Georgia, of course, doesn't have a mandate for insurance coverage for IVF, so limiting the number of embryos transferred (nevermind the clause that limits the number of embryos created per cycle which is even MORE ridiculous) creates a paradox for those who CAN seek treatment.
Essentially, anyone who can afford treatment in Georgia will be better off seeking it elsewhere. Those who wrote the bill either didn't understand the medical science behind IVF and didn't care to find out OR absolutely understood the medical science behind it and, like you said, are seeking to end IVF in Georgia all together.
Also note that the law was written, in part, by the Georgia Right to Life committee.
Shocked? I know I wasn't.
This is disgusting. And what I find the most intriguing about it is that so many adults are misinformed, as others said, about multiples. IUIs can yield just as many HOMs as IVF, except with IVF, there is slightly more control over the situation! Kate Gosselin simply took Clomid and had IUI! Obviously the doctor didn't follow her follicular growth . . . but there is a point to be made from that.
psychdoc and anonymous,who says infertiles make babies without have sex are Morons who have no knowledge of what they are talking about
Regardless of whether you believe in IVF or not many points that were addressed in this bill were not mentioned. This bill was drafted to create protection for both women and children. Studies show from data retrieved from IVF clinics reported to the CDC is that women's chances of conceiving does not increase with the number of embryos that are implanted above TWO. Also what about the 20,000 embryos that are currently in a frozen state in the state of GEORGIA alone. The majority of those who will destroyed or resold for research. WE are talking about children YOUR CHildren. Let us take emotion out of it and look at the hard facts. This would not STOP IVF in Georgia. It would help to regulate an industry that is in need of regulation so that families are not exploited and doctors not milking money for procedures and later storage of excess embryos. Let's not talk about the money they make when they sell them for research.
I pray that we can all come in agreement on this and be able to put a law into place that will still allow those who want children to have children but still protect human life at all stages!
Hello to All the Beautiful Women reading this blog,
I have read through many of your comments on this blog and I have an aunt who is like a sister to me who also went through IVF and saw how hard it was on her, the depression she battled.
My own mom was unable to have children for years and she too struggled with infertility.
So I realize this issue is not one that should be taken lightly, but The purpose of this bill was not to take away a woman's right to have children. It was rather just the opposite to protect women and their children.
What many of the doctor's at yesterday's committee did not mention was that in 2004 for at ASRM's national conference they actually reviwed a study out of switzerland where doctor's were using less embryos and having just as much success.
However in America since money is key these doctor's continue to make millions of dollars at the expense of the woman who so want to have a child.
There are procedures that currently exist that would not take us back to the 70s, but rather do what is safest for all of these beautiful women wanting to have children.
I encourage all of you to look to the studies that have been done in Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, and the UK and see what success they are having.
I want all of you to have a child to hold in your arms and I pray that you get that opportunity.
But just because the fertility clinics currently are self regulated, does not mean that is what is safest for you the woman.
I encourage all of you to go do a search on the drug lupron that is used in many fertility treatments and you will see that it has not even been FDA approved for fertility usage. It was created to treat prostate cancer patients and it has many side effects.
There is so much about IVF and the fertility industry that needs to be studied so that women can have safer and more succesful pregnancies.
Hannah
P.S. By the way I love the music in the background. :)
Thank you, anonymous, for posting the beautiful explanation of the Catholic Church's teaching on IVF by Father Ted Palchoczck. You are right, he explains it so beautifully on why IVF is immorally illicit.
However, not everyone will see the truth and even Father Ted is called "hateful" just like our Holy Father, Benedict XVI, is called "hateful" by people who have been blinded by relativism and sacrificed God's Perfect Will on the altar of convenience.
I am in good company! And I will continue to pray for all of those who are suffering from infertility and wanting to ascertain God's Perfect Will for their lives.
Can I just say that reading some of these comments this morning has made me so sad. For anyone to tell me that what my husband and I went through during IVF wasn't ALL in the name of our love for each other is just sad. Every step of our infertility struggle was taken with happiness because it was an expression of our love for each other, just like "making love" in the bedroom is. I am a Catholic, and have struggled greatly with the church's beliefs regarding infertility treatment. I haven't been to church since the night before our embryo transfer when we prayed to God to bless us with a child, and prayed for the continued health of our other embryos. It's not God I'm upset with, it's people like these anonymous posters.
According to the Catholic church a child "deserves" to know that they were made out of love. I can tell you right now that it was ALL love that allowed these two babies to be growing in me right now- my love for my husband, his love for me, and God's love for us. Our pregnancy truly was a gift from God.
It sounds to me like these people need more LOVE in their lives. Please search your souls and listen for God's voice, rather than relying on some vitae to tell you what to believe. Remember the people who wrote that are just men. God's will prevails and it was His plan for us to go through the challenges to get where we are today. I can guarantee you that anyone who has had a child after infertility will never take their children, His gifts, for granted.
Peace be with you people.
FWIW, I have the blessing of two different pastors on our IVF attempts. They understand what we're going through and think that it is great we are able to get assistance with our trying to have a baby.
But you know what, and I'm sorry if this starts something nasty, but I am so sick and tired of hearing all this crap from Catholics. You quote what the "Church" is for and against.
Well, you know what? I don't give a rat's behind what the church is for. You know why? Because they can't even keep their own priests in line! Did they do anything to stop their priests from sexually molesting little boys? No! They just ship the priests off to another church, hoping no one will find out. Oh yes, the diocese in our own town is guilty of this!
When you are able to throw stones in your own glass house and not break something, then come tell me what I can do about my reproductive rights. Until then, keep your mouth shut because I don't want to hear it!
And I'm not going to be a chicken and post this anonymously! You can know who I am!
I give praise and thanks to God for allowing me the opportunity to pursue treatments with my doctor, and the insurance coverage to pay for it. I firmly believe that if it wasn't His will, we wouldn't have the insurance coverage for it.
Sometimes the truth hurts so badly that we want to lash out. God Bless you ladies. I pray you have ears to hear.
YAY TORI!!!! You said everything I couldn't get into words!! LOVE YA! (And you too Courtney!)
Thanks for the info. I reside in Georgia and suffer from Stage 4 Endometrosis. I check your blog on a regular basis for updates on your blessing and growing family! It keeps me grounded and inspired to see that one day my husband & I will be blessed! I pray and long for that day. Thanks again for remembering those who are still TTC.
As for the the bill, it disturbes both myself and my hubby that the senate are once again making decisions for families without looking at it from a larger perspective. Most couples who elect to have IVF have exhausted all measures and are limited in their resources. Vote NO!
I don't know of anything more selfless than wanting to start a family. Being a parent is the most selfless act. It is what God commanded us to do in the very beginning of His Word. We are to fill the earth and subdue it.
I hardly think any IVFer thinks of their frozen embryos as "property". Every person I know has protected their snowflake babies with as much tenacity as if they were grown children. They are their babies from the moment they are fertilized to the moment they hopefully are born!
I am sorry to all those non out there but the reason that the Catholic church is standing up against ivf is because the procedure compromises the fundamental rights to human life.
When multiple embryos are generated through the procedure in some cases all are used, but in others and the vast majority they are simply discarded. This is violation of the the fundamental right to human life that every person has and whether or not you believe that an embryo is a life or not I beg you to consider that it is at least a potential life and if given the chance could become a human being like you and I. It is morally wrong to hace unwanted embryos as they have a right to life and need to be protected. The church is not going out to hurt infertile couples by disagreeing with IVF, it is trying to protect the rights of the child and the embryos that are out there being mistreated.
I ask you all to think about the potential lives out there and if you do go through IVF to consider all the embryos that could have a future if you just let them.
Me and my wife are going thru IVF, First of all were are trying the natural way but without any luck. This is the only chance we have to bring a healthy child into this world. This is our choice and no one should choice our future. We live in Florida and can't imagine this monsterous idea coming over here. Alot of couples are counting on there only chance with IVF, why would anyone take that away.
I am going through IVF with my husband tried everything and have a friend that was trying for 10 years she did IVF and has a baby now, it does not get better than that, those who do not have infertility issues do not understand that when one decides for IVF is because everytyhing has been tried, and should have no voice in it because it is an issue that is private to the couple with fertility problems, come on this is the the 21rst century a time of infinite posibilities, if you believe IVF is a sin then do not practice it but don't force others to live by your beliefs, and let us the community of couples with fertility issues deal with what only matters to us and our options to form a family. Risks of IVF have been exagerated by extremist Catholics, and the benefits have been dismissed, all I see around me is healthy IVF babies and happy families, and if you have ethic issues related to experimentation and disposal then that is another issue that could be regulated without demonizing IVF.
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IVF is wrong. I know because I fell to the temptation of it. I was a good person and elementary school teacher and my husband, a cancer survivor, and hard worker. We were told that children were not possible for us. We were referred to a reproductive clinic. I should have felt that Christ wasn't with me. After two cycles, I am responsible for all those lost souls. We did have twins, who I love dearly, but I hate myself. After we had the twins, I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and weak. I had two of my frozen embros destroyed. This is a decision that I regret every second of everyday of my life. I cannot undo what I have done. I watch my children play with deep sadness for fear that we will not be together for eternity. I fear that I've lost my salvation. I beg any woman who is considering IVF to stop. It is wrong. Teach your daughters, sisters, mothers, and friends that it is wrong. Have them read Revelations in the Bible. Visit Pope Paul VI institute online for other options or research adoption. Elizabeth Peterson
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