Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Baby Business

I started seeing my doctors about fertility difficulties after just two months of issues. I kept stretching it out by one month to make it sound more legit. "We've been trying for three months!!!" I can't wait to share about my Creighton Method doctor but I have to pass on a great book I'm reading which sheds extreme light on the so-called assistant reproductive technology (ART) and the adoption businesses.

I found the book "Baby Business" on Ama.zon three months ago, but pulled the purchase trigger after failed attempt #5. I wanted to have an understanding from this kind of "health care" from the commerce side of things before we even explored those options. I'm only on chapter four but I've learned about the evolution of the supply side. While, according to the author, only 32% of infertile couples use ART, they are price insensitive, meaning they will pay whatever they can afford. And while these services have been around for over two decades, the price of services has not fallen. The treatment is still expensive and some people are going into debt to pay for it.

A good example of this is a report the NY Times did last year: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/10/12/us/1247465130280/million-dollar-babies.html

The Catholic Church is against some forms of ART, but I have to say I lean towards being against it because of cost and the rigors of hormone treatment. I can barely survive my natural mood swings, let alone medically induced ones.

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