Members of the charity, To Hatch, can buy raffle tickets online and the winner will receive a free cycle of IVF, ICSI, IUI or a free egg donation or surrogacy. They will stay in a nice hotel and be chauffeured to an infertility clinic for their treatment.
This has created a storm of controversy with some journalists in the media suggesting that it is a baby lottery and that it trivializes human life.
Trivializing Human Life?
The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority released a statement in opposition of it:
‘The HFEA is strongly of the view that using IVF as ‘prize’ in a lottery is wrong and entirely inappropriate. To do so runs counter to the ethos that underpins our regulatory system and clinical practice. It trivialises what is for many people a central part of their lives.’
However, To Hatch argues that they have been misconstrued by the media and the regulatory authority, saying the prize is only one cycle of treatment, plus concierge only and the winner will not have all the treatments. They will only pay for treatment up to the value of £25,000. They point out that there is no guarantee that the winner will have a child as a result, so the lottery is not for a baby, as some newspapers have suggested, just the chance to become parents for those who may not otherwise be able to afford IVF treatment.
Camille Strachan, Founder of To Hatch, who set up the charity in response to her own fertility problems, defended the lottery.
“This lottery will offer some hope to those who cannot afford to attend private fertility clinics in areas where IVF has been stopped by the NHS.
‘Health service cuts may get more severe. When you are trying to conceive every month that passes without treatment is a month wasted.”
Although the To Hatch lottery is being called the world’s first ‘baby lottery’, it isn’t. It has been done before. In March 2010, the London Bridge Centre in London, UK, teamed up with the Genetics and IVF Institute in Virginia, USA, to create a raffle where a human egg was up for grabs, along with £13,000 worth of treatment.
That caused a similar amount of distain.
Josephine Quintavalle from Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said
“Imagine a child one day finding out that he or she came into being thanks to such a blatantly commercial initiative? Won in a raffle?”
Fertility Treatment is Too Expensive
Some view the huge costs of assisted reproduction as more offensive than this type of competition because infertile couples often get into debt and some even re-mortgage their home to pay for treatment. The process is both financially and psychologically draining and marriages can break down as a result. As funding for IVF is being slashed in many areas of the UK and some couples are not eligible for an initial free round, it is another means of helping a couple realize their dreams.
Sources:
- Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, Statement on IVF Lottery, 6th July 2011.
- 120 Hours since Public Release of To Hatch Lottery, Press Release, 10th July 2011.
- Anger at Fertility Clinics’ Human Egg Raffle, Sky News Online, 15th March 2010.
Joanna Karpasea-Jones - I have been a health writer since 1997 when I published my own newsletter, SHOTS. I have written 2 books on childhood health, and write ...
