Being Pregnant
Going Once, Going Twice . . . Win a Real Baby in the U.K.!
This could be yours for the price of a $32 ticket
Want a baby but can’t seem to make one on your own? There’s hope for you yet! A new lottery in the U.K. is offering contestants the chance to win their very own bundle of joy through in-vitro fertilization treatments.
Run by a fertility charity called To Hatch, $25,000 worth of personalized fertility treatments can possibly be yours for simply the price of a $32 ticket. Also part of the prize is a luxury hotel stay, chauffeur-driven ride to the treatment facility and the option of reproductive surgery, donor eggs, sperm or a surrogate birth if the IVF treatments fail to get you pregnant. Everyone – single people, gay, elderly, straight and couples — are eligible to win.
Oh yeah — some people find the IVF “lottery drawing” demeaning, and ethical and medical groups are outraged.
Britain has something called a fertility regulator, which is the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, who has denounced the lottery as “wrong and entirely inappropriate,” saying it “trivializes what is for many people a central part of their lives.”
However, To Hatch’s founder says the point is to create “the ultimate wish list” for those unable to conceive children naturally.
The lottery is perfectly legal, according to the Gambling Commission. It launches on July 30 and one “winner” will be chosen monthly.
How do you feel about winning IVF treatments through a lottery? Is it a good thing to offer hope to people who can’t afford IVF, or is it offering false hope since the odds of winning are probably small and it will just pile on to the emotional pain? Does this seem ethical to you?
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Join the fertility discussion: What happens to women who wait too long to have a baby?
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5 Comments
Layla Stuhldryer commented on Jul 13 11 at 4:37 pmI think it is an excellent opportunity for someone that otherwise would never be able to have a child because of the cost of such treatments.
Cew1222 commented on Jul 13 11 at 5:05 pmI don’t see a prob with it. It gives the couples who don’t have the large amounts of money for fertility treatments the chance to win it for the cost of the ticket. If you don’t believe in it don’t go. Live and let live people!
alice ewald commented on Jul 13 11 at 6:17 pmTHIS WOULD BE AN ANSWER TO PRAYER FOR SOME DESERVING COUPLE. I PRAY IT WILL BE MY DAUGHTER. WHILE THY CAN AFFORD TO RAISE A PRECIOUS CHILD, GETTING ONE IS SO SO EXPENSIVE.
Beth commented on Jul 13 11 at 11:55 pmI don’t have a problem with it. I can see where it might bother some but they don’t have to participate.
cathy commented on Sep 22 11 at 11:19 pmI don’t have a problem with this idea. If a couple can’t conceive and medical science has the solution I don’t see why it is wrong to use technology. The outcome is the same after all. The point is to give a childless couple what they always wanted. There is nothing wrong with that. I’m on board with this.
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