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GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE ON IVF PROGRAMS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
Abstract
The technology of IVF not only presents society with a range of social and ethical difficulties, but also consumes vast resources from the ‘public purse'. This paper provides an estimate of recent government expenditure on IVF programs and argues that the $32 million figure arrived at is far short of the actual sums involved. Pregnancy rates are also examined, and the conclusion is reached that on average 34 treatment cycles are required to produce one pregnancy which results in the birth of a baby that is is not premature, defective or dead at birth.
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NOTES AND REFERENCES
John M. Duggan, ‘Father Brown and the case of Australian medicine’, The Medical Journal of Australia, 146, 6 April 1987, pp. 366–7; Commonwealth Department of Health, Australian Health Expenditure 1975/76 to 1979/80: An Analysis, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, September 1983.
All the state governments have set up committees to examine the ethical, legal and social issues associated with IVF and by now all of these committees have issued their reports. The best known is the Waller Committee in Victoria: The Committee to Consider the Social, Ethical and Legal Issues Arising from IVF, Report on the Disposition of Embryos Produced by IVF, Melbourne, 1984. There have also been two federal reports: Family Law Council, Creating Children, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1985; and Senate Select Committee on the Human Experimentation Bill 1985, Human Embryo Experimentation in Australia, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1986.
Ditta Bartels. . 1987. . The human embryo as research material. . Science and Public Policy . , Vol. 14: June;: 139––44. .
Family Law Council, op. cit., pp. 4 and 29.
Alan Trounson and Carl Wood, ‘In vitro fertilisation’, The Medical Journal of Australia, 146, 6 April 1987, pp. 338–340.
Medicare Benefits Review Committee, First Report, Australian Govevernment Publishing Service, Canberra, November 1985, p. 126.
Trounson and Wood, op. cit., p. 139.
Information provided by the Utilisation Statistics and Costing Branch, Commonwealth Department of Health.
I am relying on information contained in the following sources: Alan Trounson, ‘Current perspective of in vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer’, Clinical Reproduction and Fertility, 1, 1982, pp. 55–65; R.G. Edwards and P.C. Steptoe, ‘Current status of in vitro fertilisation and implantation of human embryos’, The Lancet, 3 December 1983, 1266–1269; J. Kerin and R. Seamark, ‘Stimulation of ovulation for in vitro fertilisation’, in A. Trounson and C. Wood (eds) In vitro Fertilisation and Embryo Transfer, Churchill Livingstone, 1984, pp. 94–130; The Royal North Shore Hospital IVF Clinic, In vitro Fertilisation — Patient Information, 1987.
It should be noted that treatment schedules vary from centre to centre and from patient to patient and so each particular treatment cycle costs a different amount. The figures provided here should be taken as indicative.
This and the informaton used subsequently has been provided by the Utilisation Statistics and Costing Branch, Commonwealth Department of Health. Also see Department of Health, Medicare Benefits Schedule Book, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1 November, 1986.
Edwards R. and Steptoe P.. 1980. . A Matter of Life . , London : : Hutchinson. .
Wramsby H., Fredga K. and Liedholm P.. 1987. . Chromosome analysis of human oocytes recoverd from preovulatory follicles in stimulated cycles. . The New England Journal of Medicine . , Vol. 316: January;: 121––4. .
Gina Kolata. . 1983. . IVF goes commercial. . Science . , Vol. 221: September;: 1160––2. .
Royal North Shore Hospital IVF Clinic, In vitro Fertilisation — Patient Information.
G.T. Kovacs, P. Rogers, J.F. Leeton, A.O. Trounson, C. Wood and H.W.G. Baker, ‘In vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer: Prospects of pregnancy by life-table analysis’, The Medical Journal of Australia, 144, 23 June 1986, pp. 682–3.
Ibid, p. 683.
National Perinatal Statistics Unit and Fertility Society of Australia, In vitro Fertilisation Pregnancies Australia and New Zealand 1979–1984, Sydney, 1985.
Analogous data from the United States is provided in M.C. Andrews et al.; ‘An analysis of the obstetric outcome of 125 consecutive pregnancies conceived in vitro and resulting in 100 deliveries’, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 154, 1986, pp. 848–54.
John Waugh, “Breeding money”, Business Review Weekly, 9 May 1986, pp. 52–62.
Elizabeth John, Kui Lee and Gloria Li. . 1983. . Cost of neonatal intensive care. . Australian Pediatric Journal . , Vol. 19:: 152––6. .
National Perinatal Statistics Unit, op. cit., Table 33.