30 Years Of Assisted Reproduction Has Disproven 'Alarmism,' Shown That Market Should Regulate, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Fertility
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 28 Jul 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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In the 30 years since Louise Brown, the first infant born using in vitro fertilization, was born, the experiences of assisted reproduction have taught people to "discount alarmism" and "embrace ... new ways of making babies," as well as allowing the "market, not government, [to] regulate baby making," Gregory Pence, professor of bioethics at University of Alabama-Birmingham's School of Medicine, writes in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece.

According to Pence, there were "fears" spurred by "alarmist predictions" 30 years ago that IVF would "end sex," harm infants and "damage families." The "alarmism cloaked the real issues, which concerned money," Pence writes. He points out that the 1974 U.S. law banned federal funding for research that involves human embryos meant that IVF research "had to be done in private clinics that accepted no federal grants but instead got all of their money from client fees." One "byproduct of the ban was that [NIH] and ethics committees had no mechanism for regulating research in these private clinics," Pence writes.

Pence contrasts this with Europe, where "strict government oversight" on assisted reproduction has led to "few innovations" on the continent. "Wholly unintentionally, the U.S. ban on federal funding jump-started innovation in assisted reproduction," Pence writes, adding that those opposed to the practice "wound up creating one of the fastest-growing areas of American medicine fueled, in part, by competing private clinics."

In 1978, most insurance companies decided not to cover IVF because it was "too expensive or frivolous, and critics thought that would halt the practice altogether," he said, adding that "[e]arly on, critics doubted that couples would pay for IVF, especially if their chances of creating a baby were low." However, the last 30 years have "proved the critics very wrong," Pence writes, adding, "Fortunately, couples enjoy the freedom to spend their money as they choose to buy reproductive help." Few states require insurance coverage of IVF, with costs running about $8,000 for each attempt, and only about 25% to 30% of couples take home an infant, according to Pence. He adds that new tools, such as using eggs of young women, have boosted success rates, especially for women over age 40. According to 2005 CDC data, assisted reproduction helped to create more than 50,000 U.S. infants in that year alone, Pence writes (Pence, Los Angeles Times, 7/24).

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