Posts filed under ‘Infertility’
Infertility Treatment (1996)
Barcode (ID): 03B0104230 
Main Search Term and Keywords: Infertility
Date of Broadcast: 5th February 1996
Clip Duration: 1 min 27 seconds
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Description: A new technique for treating infertile women has, for the first time, become routinely available on the NHS. It repairs damaged fallopian tubes, which account for a third of female infertility. The treatment is not effective in all cases.
- 7 month old Amy first baby born via new treatment
- Seemed ‘to good to be true’
- Birmingham – routine procedure on the NHS which unblocks blocked fallopian tubes
- 1 in 3 success rate
- Up to 35% of female infertility is due to blocked tubes
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Health – Infertility – Ban on Use of Aborted Foetuses In Research (1994)
Barcode (ID): 03B0219716 
Main Search Term and Keywords: Infertility
Date of Broadcast: 20th July 1994
Clip Duration: 1 min 57 seconds
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Description: The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority have banned doctors from using eggs from aborted fetuses to treat infertile women. The ban does not, however, extend to the use of such eggs for research.
- Sue Score donated over 50 eggs – 3 children of her own,
- Donor shortage why considered using eggs from aborted fetuses
- Prof. Sir Colin Campbell says ‘it would be dangerous to use foetal tissue because it would be dangerous for the women, there is public position and we do not know the effect on a child born as a result – all good reasons for a ban’
- Doctors disappointed – Prof Ian Craft does not understand why it is unsuitable to allow embryos to live
- Infertility patient, Deirdre Belcher, happy that the research is being left open
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Fertility Bartering (1994)
Barcode (ID): 03b0123741 
Main Search Term and Keywords: Fertility Bartering
Date of Broadcast: 18th February 1994
Clip Duration: 1 min 48 seconds
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Description: Report on the ethics of fertility treatment as Health Minister Virginia Bottomley has ordered an inquiry into a private fertility clinic which offered free treatment to a woman in return for some of her eggs. This kind of deal is not illegal but Bottomley said women need to be protected.
- The Washington Hospital
- Women was given free IVF if she would donate some of her eggs to another couple
- East Midlands – women emotionally blackmail – Interview
- Law states no money or any other benefit should be passed hands
- ‘…the only benefits which may be offered for this purpose are treatment services and sterilisation’
- Many say it is unethical and is a loophole that should be closed
- Most clinics say they would not offer free treatments for eggs
- Health Secretary called for a report on the issue – may well be a prelude to tightening the law on fertility clinics
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Plans For Free IVF Treatment (2003)
Barcode (ID): 03D0624469 
Main Search Term and Keywords: IVF, In Vitro Fertilisation, Infertility
Date of Broadcast: 26th August 2003
Clip Duration: 1 min 42 seconds
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Good comparison of views on which treatment is more important – IVF or heart bypass
Description: It may sound good, free IVF treatment for women under 40 who need it. That was the recommendation to the NHS today. But no sooner had it been suggested, than it was under fire for costing too much, and taking money away from crucial areas like cancer care.
- Free IVF treatment on NHS
- Costs – difficult to pin down
- Average of 6 cycles – £2000-4000
- Cost per treatment £12,000
- Total Cost – £320 million
- Compares to heart bypass
- Case study – male agrees it is a matter of life or death heart bypass
- Another thinks creating life through IVF is serious as can lead to suicide
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Fertility – Sperm Frozen For 21 Years Makes Baby (2004)
Barcode (ID): 03D0627797 
Main Search Term and Keywords: IVF, In Vitro Fertilisation, Infertility
Date of Broadcast: 25th May 2004
Clip Duration: 2 min 5 seconds
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Description: In liquid nitrogen for 21 years. The IVF technique used in his conception wasn’t even invented back then. The boy’s father had his sperm frozen aged just 17 because he was about to undergo treatment for testicular cancer. The case will give hope to many young men about to undergo cancer treatment which could leave them infertile.
- 1979 – fuzzy section – test tube baby began 1978
- 5 sperm samples frozen from a 17-year-old about to undergo cancer treatment
- after 21 years, male married, thawed sperm, after 4 attempts success
- Technique ICSI – explanation with diagram
- Author of Purple Ronnie went under same technique after suffering cancer
- Government says patients are only entitled to one attempt even though took the male 4 attempts
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Health – Fertility Treatment – Special Report (1998)
Barcode (ID): 03B0272628 
Main Search Term and Keywords: Infertility, IVF, In Vitro Fertilisation
Date of Broadcast: 1st October 1998
Clip Duration: 3 min 31 seconds
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Description: The First Guidelines for doctors on who should and should not get infertility treatment on the NHS are about to be published. The Government wants to end the present patently unfair system, of what’s been called ‘treatment by postcode’. A sixth of all couples who want children need medical help. But to have any chance of it, they must live in the right area, and even then, the rules on eligibility vary.
- Twins, test tube babies – 2 of 20,000 babies born via IVF
- Parents outraged to find no help on the NHS
- Struggled to find 2,300 for the fertility treatment – would have sacrificed their home
- IVF on the NHS depends on your postcode – examples Wiltshire
- Doctors complains it makes a mockery of the NHS
- IVF – takes eggs from Mother and sperm from Father mixed in a test tube
- Of 125 health authorities in Britain, less than 80 will help towards the costs of IVF
- Direct result of health problem – marital problem, depression etc
- Example of couple who have tried for 3 years – explain physical pain
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Fertility Treatment – Proposed Changes to Law (2004)
Barcode (ID): 03D0626406 
Main Search Term and Keywords: IVF, In Vitro Fertilisation, Infertility, Sperm/Egg Donation
Date of Broadcast: 21st January 2004
Clip Duration: 3 min 1 second
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Description: Children conceived from donated sperm, eggs and embryos are to be given the right to track down their genetic parents. At the moment all donations are anonymous, but from next year the rules will change. It’s part of a wide-ranging review of the Act governing fertility treatment which the government hopes will bring legislation up to date with rapidly changing technology. Until now, women wanting IVF treatment have, officially, needed to be in a relationship with a man to qualify. Under the proposed law changes, that could no longer be a condition. The head of the governing watchdog is worried that the existing rules are driving some women to the internet to find donors.
- 3 year old Ruben Stevenson knows he was born using donated sperm but he will never know his Father
- Do not want a relationship with the donor but would like a knowledge
- Law that a child once 18 years old, will have the right to know their father – the first in 2023
- Baby boom facts – ’73,000 babies born via IVF, 25,000 Donor conceptions, 200 sperm donors, 1,100 egg donors – possible sperm shortage?’
- Losing anonymity may affect number of sperm donors – even though it is already small (200 as of 2004)
- Update to Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act – needs to be modernised
- Diane Blood – had to go to court and abroad to use her dead husbands sperm
- Controversial issues such as cloning for discussion later
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Health – IVF row to erupt (2004)
Barcode (ID): 03D0626803 
Main Search Term and Keywords: Infertility, IVF, In Vitro Fertilisation
Date of Broadcast: 24th February 2004
Clip Duration: 2 mins 19 seconds
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Good for illustrating how women are at an unfair disadvantage for attempts at IVF according to where they live – discrimination due to where they live
Description:
The scientific subject of IVF fertility treatment is likely to be become a full-scale political row. The committee which advises the government on medical matters is expected to recommend that infertile women under forty, get three cycles of IVF free on the NHS, but the government is likely to limit that in practise, to one.
- Governments response to committee expected to only recommend one cycle of IVF free on NHS
- Despite Tony Blair saying ‘All parts of the NHS will be expected to implement the NICE guidance in full’, National Infertility Day, June 2002
- Example of woman who had 3 IVF cycles – would not have been to afford all 3
- Postcode lottery – wait 12 months Newcastle compared to Durham – 8 year IVF wait
- Average success rate is 25%
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Artificial Insemination (1997)
Barcode (ID): 03B0238650 
Main Search Term and Keywords: Artificial Insemination, reproduction, in vitro fertilisation, IVF, infertility
Date of Broadcast: 3rd November 1997
Clip Duration: 8 mins 11 seconds
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A good overall for and against disclosing information to a child about their conception by artificial insemination
Description:
The latest research shows that more than three-quarters of parents that conceive babies by artificial insemination never tell their offspring, despite the possibility they may find out by chance. Report on the culture of secrecy surrounding these children which often looms over their adult lives.
- Consists of series of people talking about when they found out they were conceived by artificial insemination
- Survey of 45 families – 80% decided not to tell their children
- Why? Ashamed about infertility, do not want their natural parents to be found
- Same people explain how it destroyed their family
- Believe honesty is the best policy
- An area where it is difficult to be prescriptive
- Donor insemination children should have the right to how they came into the world
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