Robert Edwards, the "father of test tubes", once said: The most important thing in life is to have a child, and there is nothing more special in the world than a child. IVF is the most successful treatment technique among all treatments for difficult pregnancies, and nearly 10 million IVF babies have been born worldwide, benefiting tens of millions of families. Despite this, there are still some people in China who have a cognitive misunderstanding of "IVF":
Myth 1: IVF is not a biological child
Many couples who seek medical treatment do not accept IVF, and a big psychological obstacle is the mistaken belief that IVF is "artificially created" by the hospital using medical methods for them, not their own flesh and blood. In fact, in IVF, the sperm eggs come from the husband and wife, so the child is of course the parent of the couple.
Unless the infertile couple has no eggs or no sperm and makes an application to request the hospital to provide the eggs or sperm. However, this kind of treatment is unattainable for such patients, and it is a fortunate thing to be able to encounter egg sources and sperm sources.
The relevant laws of the mainland stipulate that children born of "sperm and egg offering" are the legal children of husband and wife, and enjoy the rights and obligations prescribed by law, including the right to be supported, educated, inherited, and the obligation to support their parents, and the guardianship of the children when the parents divorce.
Myth two: IVF physical strength and intelligence are not as good as naturally born children
IVF can be weak or mentally retarded – this realization is also a big misconception. After more than thirty years of development, nearly 10 million IVF babies have been born in the world, and the earliest (1978) British IVF baby girl Louise Brown has grown up and naturally pregnant with her own healthy baby. Large-scale surveys and studies have confirmed that there are no significant differences between IVF and naturally conceived babies in terms of birth defects and later physical and mental development. Infertile couples can rest assured.
Whether self-fertilizing or donor donor eggs are used, IVF and naturally conceived babies are the same in terms of eugenics rates and birth defects. IVF is the first step in conceiving life, and the obstetric examination in the later stages, like the obstetric examination of natural pregnancy, is also particularly important, which can greatly reduce the incidence of birth defects.
There are many causes of fetal malformations, and birth defects cannot be completely avoided. However, doing a good obstetric examination on time can minimize the occurrence of birth defects.
Myth three: Test tubes are twins
The Mainland Health and Family Planning Commission has set a limit of 2 to 3 embryo transfers (depending on age and the number of egg transfers), so the chance of having twins is greater than the chance of natural pregnancy, but it is not intentional to be twins. In addition, not all of the embryos may survive after placement, which is determined by natural selection. Sometimes two or three embryos are placed to survive, but it is also possible that all of them will be miscarried or only one will be left, a process that doctors cannot guarantee.
Myth 4: Choose your baby's gender
Some couples especially want to choose the gender when doing IVF, especially parents who are preparing to conceive second and third children. The idea of wanting families to have children and daughters is understandable, and it is also technically possible to screen the sex of embryonic chromosomes. However, the provisions vary from country to country. Some countries have no restrictions, and boys and girls can freely choose; in some countries, under certain conditions, such as having 2 or more children of the same sex, if you want to change a gender to balance it, you can first apply to the relevant departments, file or agree to choose the gender.
At present, the mainland's policy on sex selection for IVF only allows medical indications, that is, when there is a genetic disease related to sex, it is against the rules to select the sex in order to avoid the birth of a child with a genetic disease, and it is against the rules to select a boy or a girl.