IVF boom in China following one-child backflip
by Xavier Symons | 4 Jun 2016 |
After the Chinese government’s abandonment of the one-child policy, scores of older couples are turning to IVF in a desperate bid to have a second child.
According to government officials, demand for IVF at major clinics in Beijing and Shanghai has increased dramatically. “Fertility centres at renowned medical organisations in Beijing and Shanghai and others are under increased pressure for treatments,” officials from the Women’s and Children’s Department said.
“More and more women are coming to ask to have their second child,” said Liu Jiaen, who runs a private hospital in Beijing treating infertility through IVF, in which an egg and sperm are combined in a laboratory dish and the resulting embryo is transferred to a woman’s uterus.
Dr Liu told Associated Press that he estimated the numbers of women coming to him for IVF had risen by 20% since the relaxation of the policy, which came into effect at the start of the year. Before, the average age of his patients was about 35. Now most of them are older than 40 and some of the women are fast approaching 50, he said.
There are also reports that an increasing number of Chinese couples are heading overseas for IVF treatment. IVF treatment in other countries is typically cheaper and also gives parents the option of choosing the gender of their child (sex-selective IVF is prohibited in China).
According to the Global Times, the number of IVF tourism agencies in China has increased from five in 2013 to over 50 in 2016.
“In 2014, our agency received an average of four patients per month,” said Anna Yao, the marketing director of IVF tourism agency Kai Xin Guo. “That number has risen to around 15.”
Australian company Monash IVF is currently considering expanding into China to take advantage of the ART boom.
- See more at: http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/ivf-boom-in-china-following-one-child-backflip/11903#sthash.A59xhM8q.dpuf
Ali defeated Sonny Liston in 1964 The death of Muhammed Ali at the age of 74 is reminder of the uneasy ethical status of boxing. Only in boxing is the brain the target. Ali’s Parkinson’s disease was probably a result of punishing blows to the head over the course of his career. Gloves probably make the problem worse, as they increase the weight and the force of impact. Headgear may not protect boxers from rotational acceleration.
John Hardy, a neuroscientist at University College London, wrote a couple years ago: “nothing can be more killing of joy than personality changes, violence, substance abuse and dementia. I also think it is demeaning as a society for people to get pleasure out of watching others fight and that we should consign this public spectacle, as we have done public executions, to the dustbin of history.”
What do you think? Should professional boxing be banned? It seems hard to justify a sport which, in the words of Joe Frazier, who beat Ali in the brutal “fight of the century” in 1971, “boxing is the only sport you can get your brain shook, your money took and your name in the undertaker book.”
Michael Cook
Editor
BioEdge
| This week in BioEdge | |
by Michael Cook | Jun 04, 2016
Derides it as "Santa Claus in the fertility clinic"by Xavier Symons | Jun 04, 2016
Scores of older couples in China are turning to IVF to have a second child.by Xavier Symons | Jun 04, 2016
IVF companies in Australia have come under fire following a Four Corners investigation.by Michael Cook | Jun 04, 2016
A great resource for accurate critiquesby Michael Cook | Jun 04, 2016
Yes, say German and Dutch bioethicists; they don't know their own mindby Xavier Symons | Jun 04, 2016
Rom-com suggests that they are better off dead.by Xavier Symons | Jun 04, 2016
Wife's lawyers call the decision “extraordinary and unprecedented”by Xavier Symons | Jun 04, 2016
A new edition of the American Journal of Bioethics explores the possibility of remedying social disadvantage through cognitive enhancement.BioEdge
Suite 12A, Level 2 | 5 George St | North Strathfield NSW 2137 | Australia
Phone: +61 2 8005 8605
Mobile: 0422-691-615
Email: michael@bioedge.org
New Media Foundation | Level 2, 5 George St | North Strathfield NSW 2137 | AUSTRALIA | +61 2 8005 8605 IVF boom in China following one-child backflip
.png)
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario