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In vitro fertilization: who is in charge?
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
In Vitro Fertilization: Who Is in Charge? To the Editor: We read the March/April 2003 article “In Vitro Fertilization: Babies, Babies and More Babies” by Heather Rivera, MS III, with great interest and total disgust. We (ATL, STL) participated in in vitro fertilization and have a son (MKL) as evidence thereof. The decision regarding how many embryos to implant was made by us and based on information given to us by our physician. To suggest that decisions such as the number of embryos to implant should be made by anyone other than the patient is simply revolting. Furthermore, to base medical decisions on what anyone perceives as putting “society at inappropriately high...risks” is abhorrent. The history of putting medical decisions in the hands of the government is not illustrious. It is exactly this thinking that led the United States in the 1920s to pursue a program of government-mandated sterilization for people felt to be incapable of having meaningful lives. This program was upheld by the Supreme Court in a landmark decision written by Oliver Wendell Holmes who wrote:
degenerate offspring for their crimes, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the fallopian tubes. By the late 1930s, approximately 30,000 people had undergone sterilization by order of the United States government. Perhaps after limiting the number of implanted embryos, the next recommendation will be that people with triple vessel coronary disease only undergo single vessel bypass because of societal issues and survival that is too long if all three vessels are bypassed. Physicians need to stay focused on patients and their individual welfare as the center of their practice. Medical decisions should be made by patients with counsel from caring, involved physicians and not by governmental or regulatory bodies.
It is better for all the world if instead of waiting to execute
CURRENT SURGERY • © 2003 by the Association of Program Directors in Surgery Published by Elsevier Inc.
ALAN T. LEFOR, MD SHEILA T. LEFOR, MA MAARTEN K. LEFOR Los Angeles, California
0149-7944/03/$30.00 doi:10.1016/S0149-7944(03)00119-3
481
In Vitro Fertilization: Who Is in Charge? To the Editor: We read the March/April 2003 article “In Vitro Fertilization: Babies, Babies and More Babies” by Heather Rivera, MS III, with great interest and total disgust. We (ATL, STL) participated in in vitro fertilization and have a son (MKL) as evidence thereof. The decision regarding how many embryos to implant was made by us and based on information given to us by our physician. To suggest that decisions such as the number of embryos to implant should be made by anyone other than the patient is simply revolting. Furthermore, to base medical decisions on what anyone perceives as putting “society at inappropriately high...risks” is abhorrent. The history of putting medical decisions in the hands of the government is not illustrious. It is exactly this thinking that led the United States in the 1920s to pursue a program of government-mandated sterilization for people felt to be incapable of having meaningful lives. This program was upheld by the Supreme Court in a landmark decision written by Oliver Wendell Holmes who wrote:
degenerate offspring for their crimes, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the fallopian tubes. By the late 1930s, approximately 30,000 people had undergone sterilization by order of the United States government. Perhaps after limiting the number of implanted embryos, the next recommendation will be that people with triple vessel coronary disease only undergo single vessel bypass because of societal issues and survival that is too long if all three vessels are bypassed. Physicians need to stay focused on patients and their individual welfare as the center of their practice. Medical decisions should be made by patients with counsel from caring, involved physicians and not by governmental or regulatory bodies.
It is better for all the world if instead of waiting to execute
CURRENT SURGERY • © 2003 by the Association of Program Directors in Surgery Published by Elsevier Inc.
ALAN T. LEFOR, MD SHEILA T. LEFOR, MA MAARTEN K. LEFOR Los Angeles, California
0149-7944/03/$30.00 doi:10.1016/S0149-7944(03)00119-3
481