$68,000 babies are the worst!

the questions around ohip funding invitro fertilization continue to be lobbed at us today and to make us really feel the personal sting of this debate the star brought in a real life example:

"Danielle Alderman and her husband, Jeff, longed for a child.

Now, after $68,000 and several fertility treatments over five years, the dreams of the Burlington couple are coming true. Their baby, most likely a girl, is due at the end of the month.

The Aldermans think OHIP should foot the bill for other infertile couples who want children.

Of the $68,000, they spent about $25,000 on fertility procedures. The balance, for drugs associated with the procedures and to combat Danielle's existing blood-clotting disorder, was paid for by Jeff's work medical insurance plan.

"It's a shame that money can be the only thing that stands between amazing parents and their family," said Danielle, 32, a graphic artist."

wow.

honestly, i understand that this couple really wanted a baby. i get that a lot of people have a strong desire to have their own family.

but they feel that the government should pay $68,000 for that desire?

why do these people feel like these treatments, which THEY had covered, should be footed by the taxpayers?

what about using tax money to feed every child in this country? or expand and make more efficient the children's aid network so that abuse and neglect of children in this country can actually be addressed in a meaningful way(which isn't happening now)? why not make changes to the adoption system so that more homes for children can be found?

i find this real life story to be disgusting and totally offensive.

oh, its only "money" standing between parents and their family, danielle alderman?how about fucking nature? how many hormones and medications did you have to pump into your body before you could force it to be a baby carrier?

i get that you "want" a family, a biological baby. but guess what? some mothers "want" to have their eyes checked, or their dental health maintained, they want to feed their children and send them to a decent school.

if you have the resources to delve into fertility treatments that are expensive, go for it. but it's selfish and completely illogical to expect the procedures to be funded by the government when there are so many other uses for that money.

according to beverly hanck, the executive director of the infertility awareness association of canada, has stated that ontario cannot afford to fund infertility treatments.

hanck says that in ontario annually about 5,000 invitro fertilization treatments are done which is about 65% of all in vitro procedures performed in canada.

28% of women who undergo invitro and deliver in ontario have multiple births, which are higher risk and are associated with waaaay higher costs when it comes to care of the mother and infants.

alot of parents who opt for invitro have several embryos fertilized due to the high failure rate, so more embryos=more chances to conceive.

so the first and most obvious step would be to curb this practise, which could be achieved through regulating fertility clinics. apparently ontario could save at least $130 million annually by regulating single embryo fertilization---$130 MILLION.

so before we jump on the 'fund my invitro baby' bandwagon, maybe the government ought to regulate the industry it's being pushed to fund and recoup that $130 million dollars.

then maybe they could use those millions of dollars to, i don't know, actually provide basic health care.

the real "shame" here is that this diverts attention away from actual issues around infertility--like the environmental causes of infertility, that the expectation and pressure to have a family is so high and tense that people will do almost anything to achieve it, and that women's bodies are subjected to chemicals/hormones/invasive treatments all for the sake of motherhood--something that society makes them feel insufficient for if they don't participate in it.

maybe it should be funded eventually but right now i think it's more important for us to take a closer look at the actual issue and what's going on behind it, rather than just band-aiding this one up--because we all know how well band-aid solutions work.