Speak up and speak out....Loudly!

CBC News - Montreal - Fertility under provincial jurisdiction: top court

You may or may not be aware that the government is trying to decide whether infertility and the associated treatments should fall under provincial or federal law. There is also discussions in some provinces as to whether or not treatments such as IVF should be publicly funded. This blog is not about my opinion of either. I want to talk a little bit about the misconceptions associated with the decisions to have these treatments and the alternatives. If you are or have ever been infertile, feel free to read the article but beware of the comment section. My husband was upset that I was even reading it. It is filled with assumptions regarding IVF, infertility, and adoption with a few people with experience trying to desperately stick up for the rest of us. I did not comment because those with experience were grossly outnumbered and most of the replies were not based on fact and therefore anything goes. If you choose to read that section, perhaps you should get out the ice cream, cookies, or wine. You might need it.
In the next few months we are going to hear more and more about these topics. What I am asking is that you educate yourself before commenting and once you know actual facts, speak up and speak out...loudly. Some people choose to live childless lives. That is their choice and if they are happy, I am happy for them. Either way, imagine wanting to be a parent and not having the opportunity. People who experience infertility imagine their lives as useless. They think about all that they have to give and how it could be wasted. They imagine Christmases alone and dying alone. Psychologists equate the pain of infertility to the pain of losing a loved one and to a similar stress as being diagnosed with a terminal illness. If you haven't been there, you cannot imagine.
I noticed that in the awkwardly uneducated comments section that there was a lot of talk about it being God's will that the infertile are not parents. Infertility is an illness not unlike cancer or diabetes. If it's God's will, then that is like saying that we should get rid of insulin and chemotherapy. There is talk that we should ban fertility treatments until all the parentless children in the world find families. That might work in theory, but Canadians do not have access to "family-less" children all over the world. And international adoption often costs way more than IVF so if you can't afford IVF, you can't afford to adopt. And let's face it, adoption just isn't for everyone. Don't those children deserve the right family? And if the intention is to find parents for everyone, why not ban pregnancies in general? Would that not make the whole process a lot faster? Why should the responsibility of orphans fall on the shoulders of the infertile?  Another misconception is that children created by infertile parents are also infertile and that we are creating a larger problem in the future.  Some fertility disorders are genetic but IVF children are not doomed to be infertile.  I do believe that something we are doing is increasing the number of infertile people, but that is a whole different topic. 
What I am asking is that you make sure you know the truth before creating an opinion.  I am not asking you to approve of or reject the decisions relating to government responsibility or payment of treatments.  But please do not make assumptions regarding infertility, IVF, adoption.  The whole picture is just so much bigger than anticipated.