Good article in today's NY Times...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/health/11fertility.html?hp

In short, IVF babies are much more likely to have complications and be born prematurely than their naturally-conceived counterparts, as well as rack up multi-million dollar hospital bills.

From a biochemical standpoint, I find IVF technology exciting and interesting. On a personal level, however, I find the whole IVF phenomenon utterly disgusting and frightening. The risks that some people are willing to take to have a biological child are ridiculous, particularly because there is no shortage of already-born children who need loving parents. I'm completely unable to comprehend why someone would choose to have premature multiples with numerous health problems over adopting a child. The selfishness is takes to rationalize the first choice is sickening and strange to me.

The "humans are biologically programmed to want our own children" argument doesn't work because, after all, we're also biologically programmed to have many offspring with multiple partners to increase the chances that our genes will be passed on in future generations. How acceptable is polygamy these days? We're also biologically programmed to run barefooted on the African savanna, to hunt with rudimentary weapons, and to fear animals like cheetahs and snakes. We are most definitely NOT programmed to sit behind computers all day and eat Big Macs, and look at cheetahs and snakes in zoo cages. Since we probably agree that the latter activities are a consequence of modern life and that we are able to override our biological tendencies to accommodate those demands, we should agree that the desire to have biological children via IVF can and should be overridden in the face of overwhelming evidence that less selfish options exist.

Maybe it's a hard concept to swallow that some people who have difficulty conceiving and/or carrying healthy pregnancies are being warned by nature that there is something wrong with them, either physically or genetically, which would put a baby at risk for horrible disease and suffering, either at birth or later in life. What parent would chose that kind of misery for their child? The selfish parent who can think of nothing but having a child, and fails to think of the sad life the child might have to live if any of those scenarios should come true - these are the parents who undergo IVF and are "shocked" when their child turns out to have cerebral palsy, or in extreme cases dies in the NICU after being born at <24 weeks.

I have little sympathy for people who bring these problems upon themselves by allowing their "biological programming" (often hidden under the veil of dogmatic religious brainwashing) to rule their reproductive lives. The world does not need more babies with severe medical problems. The world needs more parents who define themselves not only as the caregivers of children X and Y, but also as members of the human species with a responsibility to act in a way which benefits a larger group of people than their immediate blood relations.