The negative sides of IVF.

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The negative sides of IVF.

In-vitro fertilisation or IVF as it is usually known has been in the media a great deal recently; Articles about the new scientific breakthroughs and television programmes showing a number of couple’s stories of going through the treatment. These do show the realistic fact that only 15 % of all treatments work and that many couples do not end up with a child, but they do not show all the negative sides to the treatment. The clinics, which carry out these treatments also, find ways of avoiding telling prospective customers these down sides in order to try and get more money.

The first IVF baby, Louise Brown was born twenty years ago and since then 30,000 babies have been born by IVF in Britain alone. This is an encouraging statistic for infertile couples but there is still a huge risk factor involved, 75% of all treatments fail and there is also the loss of huge amounts of finance and hope in couples whose expectations become so high. When the first IVF baby was born there was a huge amount of controversy, the Roman Catholic Church, for example said it was against Natural law and was therefore wrong. Many people also worried as now fertility was in human hands and they could control it, children were no longer a gift from God, they were now by many seen as a right.

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If a couple decided to go through with the treatment they must be aware that six out of seven tries at IVF do not work, the clinics often encourage couple to keep having the treatments (if they can afford it) as they still make large profits from failed treatments. On average each treatment per try cost between £3-4,000. If a couple needs more than four or five tries (the average amount of treatments couples have) it becomes an exclusive luxury just for the wealthy. The National Health Service (NHS) sometimes help with the funding but it depends on where ...

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