Hi, guys -- To clarify, I believe you're entitled to whatever medical intervention you find necessary, but I also fail to believe that a lack of fertility is a tragedy, and I don't want to pay for it. Get it if you want -- but do so on your own dime.

Some additional thoughts:

"ask yourself if you'd tell a cancer patient that maybe she just wasn't meant to live. The human reproductive organs are there for a reason---to reproduce. And if they're unable to do so, it constitutes a medical problem that requires treatment...Moreover, studies have shown that the psychological profile of those who suffer from infertility is almost identical to that of cancer patients. Both suffer from similar levels of depression."

If the organs are there to reproduce and "require" treatment if they don't, what does that say about those who choose not to? What does that say about women who choose not to because reproduction is life-threatening or health-threatening? The infertile, medically fragile, unmarried, broke, or otherwise not ideally situated to give birth aren't going to die if they don't reproduce. What they are going to do is discover that they cannot always get what they want, no matter how easy it seems for everyone else. And we as a society should not be in the position of subsidizing birth for everyone regardless of ability, whether it be by footing the bill for medical treatment or encouraging the destitute to conceive and give birth. It's simply not responsible.

As for the psychological profile, that's another of those lovely chicken-egg-or-random additional-factor-debates. Are women who are infertile depressed because they're infertile? Or are they depressed because there are related medical issues that truly are medically threatening? Or are they depressed because they cannot separate their self-worth from childbearing? Or are they depressed because they believe they were born, raised, and married so they could ultimately bear children? My cynical side says that they're possibly experiencing prolonged depression because instead of helping infertile couples cope and seek alternatives, well-meaning people around them are instead perpetuating an unhealthy view of the significance of procreation and encouraging them to pursue medically risky procedures. And if that's the case, then I truly hope these women find peace, even if no one else is helping them get there.

Sorry, ya'll. There have been comments about one's right to reproduce. I don't believe this exists for everyone, though certainly everyone has the right to reproduce if they are able through whatever means. Some don't have it no matter what. Some will have to purchase it, or risk their health or their life to have it. I am among those people. Furthermore, I think there are a number of times when it's ill-advised to reproduce, and I don't believe we as a society should encourage people to trespass those boundaries. So, again, I support your right to your own freedom. I support your right to pursue medical remedies when biology falls short. But I don't support your right to do so on anyone's dime but your own.

On thinking more about this article, I still believe that additional regulation is pointless. But the author's call for better information is a good one.

P.S. Also, to clarify, I'd suggest that EVERYONE consider adoption regardless of medical status. My comments about the "less desirable" (as designated by the authorities, not me) go only to economics.

P.S. II -- I have known many women with serious reproductive or health issues, and their choices aren't the same as mine. And I feel for every one of them. I cried extensively for my sister in law when she became diabetic, and even more when her kidneys failed and she had to have both a liver dialysis and a c-section, delivering a severely ill pre-term baby who will be on a dozen medications every day for the rest of his life. I cried extensively for my cousin when she was on bed rest for nearly six months, during which she claimed she would have killed herself with depression had her father, who had himself had a stroke, not gotten his son to drive him over every day and carry him up the stairs so he could lie on a bed pulled up beside hers to keep her company. I find it a tragedy that my aunt died in childbirth, leaving my cousins motherless and her husband a widower. Which is partially why I question their choices. I don't understand why they feel they have to suffer so, or why others encourage them to suffer.

omit "liver" -- apparently i was having a wack attack there.