Category: Bioethics

The Untold Stories of IVF

IVF Unmasked

#Unmasking IVF Explained

Originally posted June 6, 2017. Updated January 3, 2022 Welcome. We’re glad you found us. If it’s your first time visiting, here’s some background… On July 25, 2018, Louise Brown, the world’s first baby born via in-vitro fertilization (IVF), celebrated her 40th birthday. For those fortunate to have birthed healthy babies using IVF, this anniversary…
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January 3, 2022 15
IVF Memoirs

Research: IVF survivorship, IVF memoirs and reproductive activism

Three IVF memoirs provide the basis for new analysis and scrutiny surrounding the IVF consumer journey experiences and ‘IVF survivorship’ Jennifer Takhar, Associate Professor of Marketing and Communication at ISG Business School and a research affiliate at the Linguistic and International Resources Center at the Graduate School of Communication and Journalism (CELSA) of the Sorbonne…
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September 20, 2021 1
IVF add-ons

IVF Add-Ons: Scientific, Ethical, Regulatory and Legal Considerations

Harvard Law’s Petrie-Flom Center recently hosted an event focused on IVF Add-ons. This event included several experts in reproductive medicine for a discussion of the scientific, ethical, regulatory, and legal considerations of IVF add-ons, with a particular focus on the add-on procedure known as PGT-A, preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy. Eli Adashi, Professor of Medical…
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December 20, 2020 0
egg freezing

The Speculative Turn in IVF: Egg Freezing and the Financialization of Fertility

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash Lucy van de Wiel’s research, published in New Genetics and Society, provides a chilling look at the role of money in the IVF and egg freezing fields. She notes that venture capitalists and private equity firms see big financial returns and choose to fund egg freezing companies because unlike…
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September 30, 2020 0
IVF clinics

IVF Clinics Set Unrealistic Expectations

Will IVF clinics continue to mislead consumers? At today’s annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) embryologist Johanna Devroe from the University Hospital of Leuven, Belgium, presented a study showing that couples embarking on IVF to treat their infertility tend to overestimate their chance of success. The message to clinics:…
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July 7, 2020 0
IVF Add on

The Big IVF Add-on Racket

  ReproTechTruths co-founder Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos wrote this op-ed for The New York Times. Titled The Big IVF Add On Racket, it brings much needed attention to the unethical way IVF add-ons are developed and sold to patients seeking help to become pregnant. This piece calls attention to several new papers published this month in…
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December 12, 2019 2
IVF clinics

‘Predatory’ Advertising by IVF Clinics

  At the 2019 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Scientific Congress in Philadelphia Dr. May-Tal Sauerbrun-Cutler presented her study, “IVF clinic websites: buyer beware the system is broken.’ You can download her paper here. Buyer Beware Medscape Medical News reported on Sauerbrun-Cutler’s study of 361 IVF clinics. Excerpt below. Not all in vitro fertilization (IVF)…
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December 2, 2019 1
IVF abuse

Abuse and exploitation: ‘It’s an open secret in the IVF business’

Susan Bewley, an Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Women’s Health at Kings College London, witnessed the first women to die after IVF and has since written about the adverse outcomes from IVF. She gave a talk on abuse in the IVF industry at a recent gathering in London and provided permission to share her remarks…
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June 8, 2019 3
reproductive science

Reproductive science: A big business that has avoided ethical microscope

Jessica Hepburn is an author and arts producer. After she endured 11 rounds of failed IVF she become one of the leading patient voices in the UK raising awareness of the struggles involved in creating a family. She is also founder of the world’s first arts festival dedicated to fertility, infertility, the science of making…
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April 22, 2019 0
IVF industry trade group

IVF Industry Trade Group Uses Advocacy Non-Profit to Push Money-Making Agenda

IVF industry trade group, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), boosts pro-growth agenda with strategy to gain new payers for IVF In the last few years, ASRM has aggressively courted RESOLVE, once a purely grassroots group of women helping women get support for infertility. RESOLVE’s grassroots nationwide membership was its crown jewel. Eager to…
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April 10, 2019 1