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lettie · 12-04-2007, 16:15

Medical science has got a lot to answer for. Has it created a way to help infertile couples or has it created a monster????

The law tries desperately to keep up with medical science, as with each new discovery and procedure there has to be a law to ensure that there is no exploitation of the procedure. It is an extremely fine line that the legal, ethical and medical minds are treading in order to create legislation to cover all eventualities without offence.

Eg. the catholic faith believe that a fertilised egg is a life, yet as a non-catholic, I would personally not see a fertilised egg in that way. In this country a fetus, even at full term, has no rights in law until it is born and becomes a person. Yet in the USA a fetus has full rights and pregnant women can be imprisoned for damaging their fetus by drug misuse etc. in certain states.

Therefore, there is major disagreement worldwide about what constitutes a life and fertility laws have to try to consider and protect the potential for life. We only have to consider the differing opinions of the members on this site to see what a nightmare of a job it must be to make this legislation.

What many hospitals are also now seeing are couples who have become pregnant using fertility treatments, IVF, donor eggs, donor sperm etc. Many of these couples have medical problems which prevented natural conception, therefore, some of the women can have extremely dangerous, life threatening conditions when pregnant. We are seeing more and more women needing high dependency and intensive care during pregnancy and the maternal death rate has risen in the last 3 years.

It's a bit old fashioned but a long retired midwife, who was a mentor of mine, always said that we were opening a can of worms with fertility treatment. She reckoned that if a woman can't get pregnant naturally then there is a reason for it....... Even though I have seen a lot of sucessful pregnancies through fertility treatment, when I see the ones who become desperately ill, I think that maybe my old mentor had a point.

12-04-2007, 16:15	#52
lettie Filthy / Gorgeous Bejeweled Blitz Champion! Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Xanadu Posts: 4,005 Blog Entries: 337 Liked: 67 times Rep Power: 88670	Re: Woman loses final embryo appeal Medical science has got a lot to answer for. Has it created a way to help infertile couples or has it created a monster???? The law tries desperately to keep up with medical science, as with each new discovery and procedure there has to be a law to ensure that there is no exploitation of the procedure. It is an extremely fine line that the legal, ethical and medical minds are treading in order to create legislation to cover all eventualities without offence. Eg. the catholic faith believe that a fertilised egg is a life, yet as a non-catholic, I would personally not see a fertilised egg in that way. In this country a fetus, even at full term, has no rights in law until it is born and becomes a person. Yet in the USA a fetus has full rights and pregnant women can be imprisoned for damaging their fetus by drug misuse etc. in certain states. Therefore, there is major disagreement worldwide about what constitutes a life and fertility laws have to try to consider and protect the potential for life. We only have to consider the differing opinions of the members on this site to see what a nightmare of a job it must be to make this legislation. What many hospitals are also now seeing are couples who have become pregnant using fertility treatments, IVF, donor eggs, donor sperm etc. Many of these couples have medical problems which prevented natural conception, therefore, some of the women can have extremely dangerous, life threatening conditions when pregnant. We are seeing more and more women needing high dependency and intensive care during pregnancy and the maternal death rate has risen in the last 3 years. It's a bit old fashioned but a long retired midwife, who was a mentor of mine, always said that we were opening a can of worms with fertility treatment. She reckoned that if a woman can't get pregnant naturally then there is a reason for it....... Even though I have seen a lot of sucessful pregnancies through fertility treatment, when I see the ones who become desperately ill, I think that maybe my old mentor had a point. __________________ Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether. The views expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of my family, friends, employer, this site, my neighbours, hairdresser, dentist, GP, next door's dog or anyone else who knows me..