Last week Australia’s leading IVF company, Monash IVF, admitted that there had been a serious error in its Clayton laboratory in Victoria.
A lesbian couple wanted to create embryos for each of them to be transplanted into the womb of her partner. This procedure, called reciprocal IVF or shared motherhood, is supposed to foster a sense of shared parenting.
Instead, each woman ended up with her own embryo.
This follows another highly-publicised incident in April in the company’s Brisbane clinic. A woman gave birth to a stranger’s baby after an embryo mix-up.
What happened next followed a familiar script.
Act 1. A grovelling apology from the clinic. “Monash IVF has extended its sincere apologies to the affected couple, and we continue to support them,” the company declared.
Act 2. Volcanic rage from politicians. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler called the incident “incredibly distressing”, and the Victorian minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, said that it was “completely unacceptable.” There are rumblings about more regulation.
Act 3. Embarrassed IVF doctors plead for compassion and balance. The president of the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand, Petra Wale, said: “While these incidents are deeply difficult for those affected, they are exceedingly rare and must be taken seriously, without losing sight of the overwhelming positive contributions made by the sector. These professionals have enabled thousands of successful pregnancies and brought immense joy to many.”
Act 4. After a few investigations and contrite mea culpas, the industry is as buoyant as ever. Move on to the next block to admire the beautiful bouncing bundles of joy, please, move on, move on. Nothing to see here.
This happens every single time. Every. Single. Time. The IVF industry has survived scandal after scandal around the world. It has even survived a ringing endorsement from President Donald Trump. “The Republican Party should always be on the side of the Miracle of Life — and the side of Mothers, Fathers, and their Beautiful Babies. IVF is an important part of that.” Yup, even the Orange Man is on the right side of history.
The IVF industry is gigantic. The first IVF baby was born in 1978. Now the global market is valued at about US$29 billion, and analysts believe that it will grow to US$42.47 billion by 2030. The broader fertility market, which includes products like egg freezing, fertility drugs, and sperm donation is even larger – US$39 billion today and US$86 billion by 2034.
So it should come as no surprise that it can shrug off mishaps. It has deep pockets.
IVF is less regulated in the US than it is in Australia. But experience there is quite relevant. California attorney Adam Wolf, who specialises in reproductive health law, told me last year that errors are very common.
“I’ve had numerous clients who participated in IVF, had a transfer of an embryo that was supposed to belong to the couple, and gave birth to a child that was not related to them.
“How does this happen? Because the clinic mixed up people’s embryos and accidentally transferred a stranger’s embryo. The couple most commonly becomes aware of this when the baby is of a different race. Surely, though, this occurs many times—far more often—when the baby is of the same race as the parent(s), too, but virtually nobody ever uncovers the error in those situations.”
In fact, without compulsory genetic testing, couples can never be sure that the child is theirs. But will testing ever be mandatory? Nope. It would be too expensive, a violation of privacy, yadda yadda yadda.
Embryo mix-ups are just one of the ethical problems that IVF generates. How about the proliferation of ‘gaybies’, children without fathers or without mothers? How about 66-year-old mothers? How about inadvertent incest? How about babies with multiple parents? How about fathers with 1,000 children?
“In the world of infertility and creating humans, there really isn’t room for human error,” Australian surrogacy lawyer Sarah Jefford OAM told Channel 9 News after the latest bungles.
In fact, what she should have said is that in the world of infertility and creating humans, there really isn’t room for IVF. Creating humans is what loving parents do, not lab technicians and stockbrokers.