Debates over reproductive rights are always thorny, but the question of whether or not obese women should be banned from receiving in vitro fertilization is an especially loaded one. My immediate answer? No, of course obese women shouldn't be banned (what a harsh word!) from getting fertility treatments. That's discrimination against overweight women!
But a closer look at the medical reasons why some doctors want to ban the procedure for women with a BMI higher than 35 does make you stop and think. Or it made me stop and think, anyway.
The health risks faced by obese women during pregnancy are definitely real, and there are quite a few: Greater chances of miscarriage, gestational diabetes, some birth defects, lower conception rates, and complications during C-sections.
When you take those factors into consideration, denying obese women in vitro does seem like a legitimate restriction to make. Still, it doesn't sit right with me.
And I think I know why. There are a host of physical conditions that make pregnancy more risky for certain women: High blood pressure, autoimmune disorders, kidney disease, diabetes (not caused by being overweight). Do we ban women with these problems from fertility treatments, too? Are only women who are genetically predisposed to perfect health worthy of reproducing?
So even though, as I said, I don't deny that there are valid concerns associated with obese women getting pregnant, this should still be a matter of individual, informed choice.
Do you think obese women should be banned from receiving fertility treatments?
Image via Menno/Hordijk/Flickr
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Comments 30
There's a lot of judgement in these comments. Sometimes being overweight isn't a poor lifestyle choice. There's many conditions that creat weightgain. Perhaps she just went off the pill?That causes weight gain. PCOS? Thyriod issues?
So, yea
Sorry, but as someone with early onset diabeties I can tell you, I didn't make poor eating choices. My genetics screwed me. Does this mean that I shouldn't be allowed to have children since I also have PMDD and endromisois?
No! It doesn't! It means that whatever means I use to get pregnant is MY choice. It's between me and the doctor.
Eugenics hurts the poor and the black mostly. Look at history and who created the ideal. It's a horrid, horrid thing and I hope we'll mature as a specis past this.
@ Kathy
I just feel there is a huge difference between using modern medicine to create life and using it to set a broken bone. Using unnatural means to create life, for me at least, feels too much like playing God, or for those who don't believe in God, messing with the natural order of things. It's not anywhere in the same ballpark as treating a cold.
I'm not saying I judge people that use IVF, it's their bodies. However, I feel that just because "we can" doesn't always mean we should. Where do we draw the line?
Heather, are the children that already exist not worthy of the love you had to give a child? So much so that just because your husband couldn't biologically father your child you had to go through medical means to have one? Was adoption even an option? Or was it more important to have a biological child?
I'm not judging you, it's your family you have to think of.
But I can't get behind IVF when it means so many children are being passed up in foster care and so forth, just for the sake of sharing the same blood.
many kids in foster care are older. older kids in care tend to have more issues hat take special parents to deal with. without training and support and a compatible temperament of everyone in the family, things go to shit real quick. the article earlier this week about 'returning' the adopted son, for example.
Kat: There's a difference between being overweight and being obese. You need to get that clear before you think of this situation as being about someone who has gained 20lbs because they got off the pill or stopped smoking. Oh, and give me a break with the excuses. Make a few lifestyle changes and "thyroid issues", diabetes, and other problems suddenly start to disappear or improve. Hmmmmmm.... wonder what that means? Nah. Taking responsibility is too hard. Let's just blame genetics and knee problems and medications and stress and not having time to cook and kids and bad backs and our kids are fat too because of genetics and and and...
A BMI of 35 means that a woman of 5'4 would be 205lbs. Thats not a little overweight. Yes having certain medical conditions can make you a little overweight, but if you're obese then you aren't being properly managed or taking care of yourself. For the most part (i'm not saying there aren't exceptions), mother nature knows what she is doing! If your body isn't healthy enough to concieve, it is likely that you will have problems.
I don't think it should anyone's business but the woman's. There are so many factors that can lead to unfavorable things in a pregnancy, and obesity is not the only one.