Making babies, the hard way
(sz) IVF is now commonplace. It needs to be regulated with a lighter touch
Doctors at the Hammersmith Hospital in west London have been carrying out in vitro fertilisation (IVF) for more than two decades. Lord Winston, Britain’s best-known fertility specialist, writes of the hand-to-mouth early days, when patients were counselled in a disused broom cupboard and research was done in derelict huts. The desperate pioneers willing to try anything to have a baby were treated free, subsidised by Lord Winston’s private surgical practice. All decisions were made by the patient and doctor alone.
Lord Winston is now retired, but the centre he founded flourishes, carrying out 1,000 IVF attempts each year and playing a part in the birth of around 300 babies. Half these treatments are paid for privately—the cost is £2,500, plus thousands more for drugs—and taxpayers finance the rest. Stuart Lavery, one of the two consultants at the clinic, talks with pride of its slick operation, the “earthquake-proof” table where sperm and eggs meet, and the joystick-controlled operating microscope, which permits single cells to be taken from embryos and tested for genetic ailments. All treatments and research are overseen by a national regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). more…
From: »The Economist«