Woman Dies While Undergoing IVF

Woman Dies While Undergoing IVF

(Link):  23-year-old woman dies while undergoing routine IVF treatment 

A healthy 23-year-old woman has died while undergoing IVF after suffering the effects of a rare complication.

(Link): Woman Dies While Undergoing IVF

Woman dies while undergoing IVF: 23-year-old Indian mother suffers rare complication which sent ovaries into overdrive and shut down her lungs

October 25, 2022
by Emily Craig

A mother undergoing IVF died after suffering an extremely rare side effect, medics have revealed.

The unidentified 23-year-old, from Delhi in India, died ‘suddenly’ while doctors were collecting her eggs.

The woman, who was married for seven years and had a four-year-old daughter born naturally, appeared healthy when she went to hospital for the procedure.

However, her heart stopped beating when fertility doctors tried to retrieve her eggs. They were unable to resuscitate her.

A post-mortem revealed she died from ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) — a complication that affects one in three women undergoing IVF.

UK Court Says Widower Can Use Late Wife’s Frozen Embryo for Surrogate

UK Court Says Widower Can Use Late Wife’s Frozen Embryo for Surrogate

(Link): Widower wins right to have baby using embryo created with his late wife

Landmark ruling allows Ted Jennings, 38, to use embryo to have child via a surrogate

(Link): Widower, 38, fights for the right to have a baby with embryo he created during IVF with wife after she died of a ruptured uterus while pregnant at the age of 40

May 5, 2022

An investment manager is fighting for the right to have a baby using the last remaining embryo he created with his late wife, after they spent a years desperately trying to have children.

Widower Ted Jennings, 38, of Highbury, north London, used his sperm to create multiple embryos with Fern-Marie Choya during several rounds of IVF treatments between 2013 and 2018.

He has now asked Mrs Justice Theis at the High Court to rule that it would be lawful for him to place the last embryo – which was created in 2018 and has been stored –  ‘in treatment with a surrogate mother’.

But lawyers representing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said Mr Jennings’ application should be dismissed.

They argued that it would not be lawful to use the embryo because Mr Jennings’ accountant wife, who died in 2019, had not provided written consent.

(Link): UK court says widower can use late wife’s frozen embryo for surrogate

Ted Jennings said his wife previously agreed upon using their embryos if she were to pass

June 23, 2022
By Haley Chi-Sing

A U.K. High Court judge ruled in favor of a man requesting to use his late wife’s frozen embryo with a surrogate on Wednesday.

Ted Jennings, 38, had submitted his application to the High Court after his wife, Fern-Marie Choya, died suddenly in 2019 while pregnant with twins and did not give written consent as to how her embryos could be used following her untimely death.

The couple had previously engaged in fertility treatments, according to The Guardian. Choya later became pregnant with twins and died suddenly 18 weeks into her pregnancy after experiencing complications.

Sperm Donor With Incurable Condition Who Fathered 15 Children Unmasked by Judge to Stop More Women Responding to His Online Ads

Sperm Donor With Incurable Condition Who Fathered 15 Children Unmasked by Judge to Stop More Women Responding to His Online Ads

(Link): Sperm donor fathered 15 children despite DNA condition

Excerpts:

May 31, 2022

A man fathered 15 children after advertising his sperm on social media despite having an inheritable condition, a court has heard.

James MacDougall has a genetic condition which means his children could have learning difficulties.

At the court hearing last week, he was told he would not be able to contact three of his children.

(Link): Sperm donor fathered 15 kids without telling moms he has genetic IQ disease

May 31, 2022
By Brooke Steinberg

A Facebook sperm donor fathered 15 children but never told the mothers he has an inheritable condition that causes learning disabilities.

James MacDougall, 37, fathered children with lesbian women through private donations advertised on social media despite knowing he had incurable Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder that leads to low IQ and developmental delay.

MacDougall’s identity came out in a family court battle in Derby, United Kingdom, after he applied for parental responsibility and child arrangement orders for four of his children — even though he originally signed an agreement saying he didn’t want contact with some of his children.

Modern Couples Looking to Start a Family Are Turning to IVF – Because They Are Too Busy for Sex

Modern Couples Looking to Start a Family Are Turning to IVF – Because They Are Too Busy for Sex

But so many of Christians told me, assured me, when I was growing up – in their magazine articles, books, sermons, and TV shows – that married sex is GREAT and REGULAR! I guess not, judging on news stories like the one below!

Look at how all those reassurances and promises I heard from Christians as I as growing up ended up being false.

(Link): Modern couples looking to start a family are turning to IVF… because they are too busy for sex, experts reveal

Excerpts:

by Victoria Allen
May 2022

Modern couples wanting a baby are turning to IVF – not because they are infertile but because they are too busy to have sex, according to experts.

Couples are advised to try to have sex around every three days to optimise their chances of conceiving.

But the pressure of being ‘always available’, checking emails out of hours and finishing to-do lists has left many people with flagging libidos and little time for passion.

The spare time they do have is often spent watching Netflix, experts fear.

The number of British couples turning to fertility treatment they do not really need simply because they do not have sex often enough to conceive naturally is thought to run into hundreds.

Couple Who Asked For Female Embryo Sues Fertility Clinic Over Baby Boy

Couple Who Asked For Female Embryo Sues Fertility Clinic Over Baby Boy

This is a switch. I usually see headlines about fathers angry that their wife gave birth to a girl and not a boy. Here we have a lesbian couple who are upset they had a baby boy.

(Link):  Couple Who Asked For Female Embryo Sues Fertility Clinic Over Baby Boy

by Amy Klein
March 27, 2022

Heather Wilhelm-Routenberg said she would only have kids with her wife Robin (Robbie) Routenberg-Wilhelm if they could have girls — because Heather was still traumatized from being sexually assaulted on two different occasions after college.

Heather and Robbie say that CNY fertility clinic in Latham, NY, assured the Buffalo couple it would not be a problem: The lab could determine the sex of any embryo, created using an egg from Robbie and donor sperm, before it was transferred into Heather.

But when Heather was 15 weeks pregnant — having been assured by the clinic that the embryo was female, she says — they found out she was carrying a boy.

The news sent her into a dark depression.

Family Sues Doctor After DNA Test Shows Adults IVF Baby Isn’t Related to Her Father

Family Sues Doctor After DNA Test Shows Adults IVF Baby Isn’t Related to Her Father 

(Link): Family Sues Doctor After DNA Test Shows Adults IVF Baby Isn’t Related to Her Father 

Feb 3, 2022
By Jesse O’Neill

An Ohio couple claimed a fertility doctor used sperm from a stranger during the 1991 insemination procedure that resulted in the birth of their daughter.

Jeanine and John “Mike” Harvey said they learned their daughter Jessica was not biologically related to her father after a DNA test showed “no genetic relation” between the two, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The Harveys accused Dr. Nicholas Spirtos and Summa Health System of malpractice, negligence and fraud, alleging they failed to “properly collect” and “safeguard” John’s genetic material.

50-Year-Old Woman Gives Birth to First Child: ‘We Wouldn’t Give Up’

50-Year-Old Woman Gives Birth to First Child: ‘We Wouldn’t Give Up’

(Link): 50-Year-Old Woman Gives Birth to First Child: ‘We Wouldn’t Give Up’

Nov 24, 2021
By Ann W. Schmidt

Susie Troxler always wanted to be a mother. Now, at the age of 50, she is.

Troxler gave birth to her first child, Lily, on Sept. 29 at Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina.

“It was so surreal,” Troxler said in a press release from the hospital. “Everything had come together for that moment to happen. It’s hard to wrap our heads around. We’re no longer just husband and wife, we’re ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy.’”

Troxler and her husband Tony, 61, were married in 2008 and tried multiple times to have children at first, naturally. Then, about two years ago, she started in-vitro fertilization treatment and later, egg donation, FOX Television Stations reported.

Imagine a Future Without Sex by James Lee

Imagine a Future Without Sex by James Lee

(Link): Imagine a Future Without Sex by James Lee

Reproductive technology may lead us to realize too late that being human is better than playing God.

…. All this creates unprecedented ethical challenges in the immediate future. Consider the parents who use IVF to raise their children’s IQ.

If the children repeat the process for another generation, taking advantage of scientific advances during the interim, they could bring the total average gain in the grandchildren north of 10 points—a huge gain.

That advantage could be big enough to give the grandchildren radically disproportionate representation at the highest levels of science, finance, information technology, medicine, law and business.

Designer Baby Revolution: Can We Outlaw Sexual Reproduction?

Designer Baby Revolution: Can We Outlaw Sexual Reproduction?

(Link): Designer Baby Revolution: Can We Outlaw Sexual Reproduction?

By Cameron English — August 30, 2021

Could governments mandate that we quit reproducing sexually for the sake of public health? It sounds outlandish, but there are prominent thinkers making that case.

Their argument is superficially plausible but ultimately absurd, both for scientific and ethical reasons.

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…. However this particular dispute ends, the opposing sides and the underlying point of contention, who controls your body, aren’t going anywhere soon.

The reason is that advances in health care are enabling physicians to identify the genetic underpinnings of serious diseases and take preventative measures before their patients suffer the debilitating effects of these disorders.

Why I Have Zero Regrets About My Childless Life by C. Zacharek

Why I Have Zero Regrets About My Childless Life by C. Zacharek

(Link): Why I Have Zero Regrets About My Childless Life

Excerpts:

I’d always wanted babies. Probably. Eventually. Possibly. When I graduated from college, in the early 1980s, friends started having them while I remained happily unencumbered.

Even after I married, family planning was more like having no plan, other than putting it off until later. When I reached the age when I was supposed to be desperate to be a mother–early to mid-30s–I didn’t feel desperate; I only felt unsure.

My sole mistake at the time, I see now, was not trusting that I’d be O.K.–maybe even better than O.K.–with or without a baby.

Today, more and more women are choosing not to have children, and while the stigma hasn’t completely lifted, it’s not what it once was.

The Overlooked Emotions of Sperm Donation

(Link): The Overlooked Emotions of Sperm Donation

by Ashley Fetters

July 9, 2018

“My hope is that people think about how this is more than a transaction,” says one family therapist.

Sperm donation offers a tidy solution to an aggravating problem: When a person or a couple wants a baby and needs a different ingredient than what they’ve currently got to make one, a man with viable sperm swoops in to help.

…As simple a transaction as sperm donation can seem to be, though, some find it to be stressful or isolating—and because assisted reproductive technology is a relatively new, rapidly developing field, the social and emotional challenges that can arise between the participants in a sperm donation are, for many, uncharted.

Why More Women Are Having Babies at 50 and Beyond

Why More Women Are Having Babies at 50 and Beyond

(Link):  Why More Women Are Having Babies at 50 and Beyond

Excerpts:

….Duckworth [Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill] is expected to deliver her second child a few weeks after she turns 50, a time when many woman expect the end of fertility and the beginning of menopause to be around the corner.

The Senator said she delayed having children to pursue her career and, by the time she was ready, she had to overcome infertility.”The early part of my career, which was also, [like] for most women, your twenties and early thirties, your prime fertility years,” she told ABC station WLS in Chicago, “were also my career-building years.”

She is not alone. Duckworth is among a growing number of women, including celebrities like Janet Jackson and Sophie B. Hawkins, tackling motherhood in their fifties.

Overall birthrates in the United States have been declining for years, reaching a record low in 2016, according to National Bureau of Health Statistics, and provisional data suggests a new low for 2017.