A Child Against All Odds - the BBC season about ethical issues around infertility science - has provoked strong feelings on all sides. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the issue that has provoked the strongest response so far is the question of an age limit for mothers using IVF. At a live debate at BBC Bristol, young students in the audiences were vocal in their views that women can't have it all, and one member of the audience challenged the panel to give an upper age limit for IVF treatment. Only one gave a figure, while the rest talked about biological age as opposed to chronological age. Helen Kendrew, of the British Fertility Society, said she would not treat a woman over 45 because the chances of success were so slim. On 'Check Up' on Radio 4 last week, Dr Gillian Lockwood urged women not to delay having children because 'fertility-time' can never be recovered, whereas you can catch up on your career.
Dr Lockwood also provoked heated debate on the 'Vine Show' on Radio 2, debating the ethics of egg freezing with Josephine Quintavalle of Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE). In philosophical mode, they painted a picture of a room full of students where all the women had frozen their eggs. How would the men feel? At ease that they were not going to be used, or redundant? The producers were inundated with over a thousand phone calls and emails. Meanwhile, on the long-running Radio 4 soap 'The Archers', Hayley thinks she needs IVF and is shocked to find out that her health authority will not pay for her treatment because Roy already has a child. The Archers message board has had a big influx of postings about how long things take in RL (real life) and whether it is right to pin one's happiness on having a child.
The purpose of BBC Learning's campaign is to get audiences to think about the ethical issues surrounding today's infertility science, and challenge them to find out more about the dilemmas and issues that patients and health professionals face. The aim is to engage audiences with a subject that most people have instinctive views on and make them better informed about the science as a result. In the first two weeks the dedicated website bbc.co.uk/childagainstallodds had over 80,000 visitors and almost 8,000 people have taken part in an online vote on the question of the week. BBC broadcast events around the country continue with a live debate in Sheffield on egg and sperm donation on Friday 15 December, followed by a discussion of whether science offers people false hope, and whether there is too much emphasis on having a biological child in Manchester on 20 December - just five days before we celebrate the virgin birth. Contact by email if you would like to come either of these events.
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