Radio articles.

The IVF debate in Poland.

16.01.08

Should the language used in this debate about IVF in Poland be more carefully considered?

By Anna Piwowarska

I think most people agree that in vitro fertilisation (IVF) is an extremely sensitive subject matter.
Nowhere more so than in Poland, where a large majority of the Catholic population objects to the freezing (and sometimes the destruction) of human embryos. Of course, the ethical and moral side of this complicated issue is something that should be discussed by both sides. However, that is not what I want to talk about today. What I want to discuss is the language employed within this debate.
One in five couples has problems with conceiving and it is likely that this number will continue to rise. Recently, the IVF debate has been in the headlines again as the government has been thinking about refunding the procedure to the growing number of couples undergoing it. There have been many newspaper articles, radio programmes and news items devoted to the subject. In some of them, women receiving IVF have been described as ‘immoral’ and accused of having ‘silent abortions’.
They have been said to use IVF in order to be able to choose their child’s eye and hair colour. Everyone knows that stress is proven to be a major factor in many cases of infertility. Such commentary and judgment must add to this stress. Particularly, for the many Catholic women who are having problems with conceiving. The Roman Catholic Church is wholly opposed to IVF, yet it is legal in this country. It must indeed be a difficult dilemma for many.
Is it alright to say that women undertaking IVF treatment are “reduced just to virtually a breeding animal”? To refer to their husbands or partners as “sperm donors”? Is it fair to say that one “can hardly imagine a worse beginning of paternal love”?
Maria Środoń of MaterCare thinks it is.The argument used by many Catholics that children who are born through IVF are born without love is difficult to fathom. Couples who spend years of their lives and all their savings to be able to have a family surely cannot be accused of lacking love for a child. The strength and long-enduring love of such marriages is to be admired rather than questioned. When I hear comments like those of Środoń, I fear for what the future holds for women in Poland.
When reading the words of women who themselves are suffering from infertility on internet chat rooms, there is a very obvious feeling that they have nowhere to turn. They are often unable to get appointments to infertility specialists through the Polish National Health Care and when paying for private gynecologists are often ‘scammed’ into buying certain drugs or to making repeat visits that often lead nowhere. This isolation is worsened by the fact that the subject is treated as taboo.
Thankfully, there are glimmers of hope. I recently listened to part of a discussion on IVF between the iron lady of TVN, journalist Monika Olejnik and the head of the prime minister’s chancellery, Sławomir Nowak. Although Nowak admitted that there were no current plans to refund the expensive fertility treatment he said that he believes that people suffering from infertility should be helped, and he seemed aware of how widespread the problem was. I also spoke to a priest from a Polish church in London, who, although was loyal to the church’s stance on the subject, used a different sort of language when discussing it – a language of humanity. Perhaps in their own different ways, they will work towards changing attitudes to infertility in Poland in the future.
With the percentage of infertile women growing by the year, I wonder what will happen when this country’s population reaches a worrying low. Perhaps people will agree, as is the case of the rest of Europe, that medical advancement should not exclude the field of infertility. IVF is often the last and only chance a couple may have to have a child. Bearing in mind the amount of stress and heartbreak that they must deal with along the way, they could do with more words of understanding and humanity.