IVF on the NHS

[AB Editor]

 

This poll is closed.

Should IVF be available on the NHS?

• No. - 141 votes
• 59%
• Yes. - 97 votes
• 41%

See final stats

Stats until: 17:26 Tue 03rd Dec 2024 (Refreshed every 5 minutes)

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[jno]

carakeel, the thing with the NHS is, it wasn't set up to make people happy, it was to stop them dying young. I still believe serious illness and pain control should be its main targets. This doesn't mean I'm a selfish beast. It just means that in hard times, treatments need to be prioritised.

[4getmenot]

maybe if they stopped some plastic surgery being paid by NHS would be able to free up money for IVF

[LoftyLottie]

I know Karen. I know people that have had problems with adopted children - all sorts of problems, but you can have problems with your own children too. It would be very nice if we could have everything we wanted, but we cant. If someone is treated for a health problem and the treatment works and that means they can get pregnant naturally, that is a different matter, but basically the treatment given should be to improve their health, not to enable pregnancy.

[LoftyLottie]

I think there are people on this thread who are childless and would love to have had children but have still voted no.

[LoftyLottie]

What sort of plastic surgery 4-get?

[LoftyLottie]

Agree with jno completely.

[classylady60]

Have to agree with the Lottie, needs must et al.

[ladybirder]

There would also be a lot of heartache for the loss of a child with cancer because the NHS couldn't afford the drugs for treatment because the money had been spent on IVF. My brother and his wife couldn't have children and they adopted two and I would have done the same in their shoes. The NHS was set up to treat the sick and we don't have any left over for lifestyle choices, sad as that will be for some.

[4getmenot]

girls that have boob jobs and convince the doctors they are depressed because of it. Not being able to have children can make people depressed too.

[Jan1957]

My husband and I did look into adopting as well and were told we were too old. I was 36 and he was 37!

[jno]

those go to the bottom of my priority list too, 4get.

[LoftyLottie]

You can adopt older children at that age Jan. A couple I know adopted a seven year old when they were older than that.

[classylady60]

I understand that 4get but life is cruel. Priority really should be given to healing and curing illness when it comes to the public purse, not as ladybirder says, to choice in lifestyle.

[4getmenot]

going to bed now, this thread has depressed me. Night all.

[LoftyLottie]

Lots of things make me depressed 4get. But the NHS isn't there to change things to stop me being depressed. It can prescribe me drugs to help, but it's not there to change my circumstances.

Homeless people get depressed, jobless people get depressed. Should the NHS help them?

[Jan1957]

And me 4 get. I'm going to pour myself a large vodka. Life is sh1t sometimes.

[sherrardk]

Lofftie - I am pretty sure you have a child. Can you consider you life without him/her?

[LoftyLottie]

Life certainly is Jan, but for lots of different reasons. Most of us would love to change things about our life, but we just have to make the best of what we have. Having children doesn't automatically mean happiness.

[karenmac60]

Lofty, I think different authorities have different rules regarding adoption. As for NHS money only being spent on needy cases - it's impossible to get an appoinment at my drs because all the folk on long term incapacity benefit need regular sick notes to prove they are still ill - and in my area a huge number of them are people who were taken off the dole and put on incapacity when Thatcher decided to massage the unemployment figures. Every time I am at the chemists at least one drug addict comes in for their methadone fix. More than half the folk in my town are supposedly disabled - and they are all draining the NHS. I'd much rather pay to bring new life into the world than to keep leeches sitting on their arses!

[classylady60]

How right you are Lottie.