Georgia Reproductive Specialists along with other Atlanta fertility clinics, RESOLVE and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) oppose both of these bills. Firstly, Senate Bill 169 would restrict doctors' ability to perform IVF in accordance with best medical standards.
Here are the key provisions:
- No more than 2 or 3 eggs could ever be fertilized in a cycle; if a woman produced more eggs, they still could not be used.
- Only 2 embryos could ever be transferred to the uterus, unless the woman is age 40 or over (then a max of 3).
- No extra embryos could be cryopreserved. If they are created, they have to be transferred.
- No financial relief, such as insurance coverage, is proposed to help with the added financial burden of using less effective treatment. Patients will still have to pay out of pocket for less effective treatment.
- Bans all financial compensation for donor gametes, such as egg donor, sperm donor, or embryo donation, which would reduce the pool of available donors in Georgia.
SB 204/HB388 is an embryo adoption bill. It would subject embryo donation to all the same provisions as required by law for adoption of a child. This would subject infertility patients needing an embryo donation to go through the judicial proceedings, home visits, and other procedures required for an adoption. We do not believe that such treatment is appropriate or needed for embryo donation.
This is truly an outrage, and I encourage everyone to oppose these ridiculous bills. Can you imagine? If they had allowed me to fertilize only two of the eggs that we harvested during our IVF cycle, we may not have ended up with ANY that continued to divide, and we almost definitely would not be having these twins right now. You can read some more about why this is such stupid and hurtful legislation on Murgdan's & Lollipop's blogs.
Trust me, as a Georgian I am BEYOND furious, and scared for my IVF---But, the bill has been squashed for the moment (sent to subcommittee) so we have a few more months before it will be considered again. Still very very upsetting. Very backwards thinking.
ReplyDeletewow that is serious and stupid legislation. I had 17 eggs fertilised but only ended up with two blasties (my two 2 yr old boys) suitable to transfer (3 of 5 remaining were not viable).
ReplyDeleteHow upsetting for Georgians undergoing IVF.
Seriously I hear you on this. My opinion is if you want a say on what you can do with my eggs you're going to have to cover my fertility costs 100%! It's all about the money...you can't tell someone what to do if you're not paying for it.
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