Episode 161--IVF and The Alabama Ruling

Hello, and welcome to episode 161 of the Childless not by Choice Podcast. My name is Civilla Morgan. My mission is to recognize and speak to childless not by choice women and men around the world, reminding you, us, that we can live joyful, relevant, fulfilled, childless not by choice, lives.  

Whether you have children or not, thank you for tuning in!  

 

What is today’s show about?

 

IVF and the Alabama Ruling 

 

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Body of episode:

 

• On average, IVF has a success rate of 46.7% (depending on individual fertility conditions).--cryosinternational.com

• 1 million: Number of babies born in the United States between 1987 and 2015 through the use of IVF or other assisted reproductive technologies, according to a report released in 2017 by the by the U.S. Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART). Assisted reproductive technologies include IVF or the use of an egg donor, sperm donor or adopted embryo.

• Today, 40 years after its heavily criticized clinical introduction, IVF is available as a successful treatment for infertility almost all over the world. Over 8 million IVF children have been born, and over 2.5 million cycles are being performed every year, resulting in over 500,000 deliveries annually.--Google

What is IVF?

What is IVF and how is it done?

During in vitro fertilization, mature eggs are collected from ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. Then a procedure is done to place one or more of the fertilized eggs, called embryos, in a uterus, which is where babies develop. One full cycle of IVF takes about 2 to 3 weeks. Sep 1, 2023

 

How much does it cost to have IVF?

While the average base cost of a single IVF cycle falls between $14,000 and $20,000, this is merely an approximation. The actual expenses may differ. Moreover, additional costs including medications, genetic testing, cryopreservation, and storage fees must be taken into account.

 

So just getting the pre-work done costs thousands, and the whole process is about timing. Timing. Ovulation, injections into the stomach at just the right time of the month.  All of the things that need to be done at just the right time, of the month. Oh, let’s not forget the should we call it, cultivation of the eggs. It’s a process. All of it.

 

And this process is done by doctors. People who studied for a very long time so that they could assist their patients. Politicians and judges went to school to study politics and law. Nowhere do the two professions meet unless a person gets both degrees. 

 

I checked to see if this judge in Alabama has an MD-JD, in other words, a medical and law degree. I did not find anything in my research that says he does. 

So what’s the back story anyway? 

Well, apparently a patient went wandering around an IVF clinic and somehow got back to where the embryos were kept in a cryogenic state, and dropped a few of them, destroying them. A few couples that also were clients of this clinic heard about this and filed suit. 

I mean, I have questions. How did this patient get back there? Why did she touch things that did not belong to her? Was she looking for her embryos? Was the clinic not working with her? Why was she back there?

 

But those questions aside, what I really want to know is how much research and homework was done by the judge to come to his ruling? 

Did he consider how ruling against IVF would affect people who were having trouble getting pregnant? Was research done on the process of  IVF? Why it is done? Even how it is done? I don’t know. 

Maybe he did and still decided to rule the way he did. Did he know that his ruling would affect men as well as women? 

 

When these lawmakers are, well, making these laws, how much research is done? Seriously. I don’t mean just legal research. I don’t mean sitting in a law library or having your law clerks sitting in a law library trying to come up with legal reasons to cause terror in people’s lives. How much research did they do to understand the relevance of the law to current life? Does relevance to current life, say vs. before IVF was invented, matter in research and ruling?

 

I am no lawyer, but shouldn't the law have to somehow keep up with the current times?  And no, keeping up with the current times does not mean fundamentally changing the law otherwise as much as the law sometimes doesn’t make sense now; imagine if it was fundamentally changed to keep up with the fact that we are in the 21st century and not the middle ages.  

 

Let me go deeper, do these lawmakers know or even care about infertility, the biological clock, gasp, male infertility?  Are these lawmakers just concerned about their interpretation of the law and making a name for themselves down through history, using God as a way to make it make sense? Let me stop here for a second: 

God is not the author of confusion. 

God has given us free will as human beings.

He has given us wisdom, common sense, and the ability to invent things like IVF.

He has created every human in His image. He loves women as well as He loves men. 

 

All of the division we see globally, the mistreatment and hatred of women is not godly. OK, that’s me hopping off my soap box. It’s been a while since I’ve used my soap box, so thanks for allowing me the latitude.  

 

Look, I realize the law is not based on empathy. And one can argue that point, but if the law were based on empathy some perpetrators would not be released on a technicality. Some people would not rot in prison for something they did not do. More work, and more research would be done in both cases.

 

People, men, and women; would not have to suffer through infertility, deal with IVF treatments, and then rely on a legal system that has no empathy, have done no research, have no real world answers, or understanding on the matter to which has to be ruled while not fundamentally changing the laws. I believe both can be done.    

 

The bottom line is this, the patriarchy is acting as it has for a millennium.  But the part that gets me is when God is brought in. Let me repeat what I said earlier: God doesn’t hate women, He created us. He created humans in His image, so that would be men AND  women. He doesn’t prefer men over women. He doesn’t have disdain for women. 

 

I don’t understand how the rampant mistreatment of women worldwide makes the world a better place. It doesn’t. Using God as a prop. Never a good idea. But it’s done all the time. 

What happened in Alabama, and what is happening around the country is not being done in kindness and empathy. It is being done to grab power, to be judgemental, and to cause duress. For what reason? Power. It’s all  about power. When ultimately, God has all the power.      

 

God’s process for how men and women should live does not include fast rulings done with no research, no empathy, no real legal theory,  that affect people in such a negative way. 

 

I know the Alabama Supreme court cobbled something together to help protect those who are going through the IVF process from the judge’s ruling. The governor of Alabama has signed off on the ruling, but my understanding that this new ruling still does not fully protect people going throught IVF, but at least it is a start. I guess we will stay tuned! 

 

    

Research links:

 

https://www.arcfertility.com/patient-resources/understanding-the-cost-of-ivf/#:~:text=While%20the%20average%20base%20cost,must%20be%20taken%20into%20account.

 

https://judicial.alabama.gov/CourtMemberBio/ViewBio?id=3#:~:text=Chief%20Justice%20Parker&text=Chief%20Justice%20Tom%20Parker%20was,elected%20Chief%20Justice%20in%202018.

 

https://www.cryosinternational.com/en-gb/dk-shop/private/blog/ivf-treatment-for-single-women/

 

https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/fertility-blog/2018/march/ivf-by-the-numbers

Articles/links of interest:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/21/why-has-the-alabama-supreme-court-ruled-that-embryos-are-children

 

https://www.newvision.co.ug/category/news/childless-woman-flees-from-abusive-husband-NV_183405

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Well, thank you for listening to this episode of Childless not by Choice! Until next time! Bye!

 

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Notes from the episode:  

 

“God is not the author of confusion…God has given us free will..wisdom, common sense, and the ability to invent things, like IVF.’

 

‘He loves women as well as men.’

 

‘We are all created in His image.’

 

‘All of the mistreatment of women globally is not God, and it’s not godly.’

 

‘..He does not have disdain for women. That’s a human thing.’