Fertility
Fertility is a precious commodity for the modern woman. Greater opportunities, education and choice, along with the difficulties of finding the right partner can make it easy to delay falling pregnant. Being able to stow eggs away for the “right time” is an alluring prospect.
In this context, a recent discovery by Dr Jonathan Tilly of Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital offers massive temptation. The American scientist has found that ovaries of young women harbour very rare stem cells capable of producing new eggs.
He made the discovery after an initial study found that stem cells in the ovaries of adult mice could give rise to viable eggs. This means that although women are born with a finite number of eggs, they now have more chances to fall pregnant later in life. But it’s also a risk of epic proportions.
Continue reading "Scrambled science or an ovulation revolution?" »
There is no ‘right’ to have a child. This seems a callous thing to say, but wrapping any conversation about children up in cuddly pink fleece-lined jumpsuits doesn’t help what has to be a serious policy debate.
While it must be devastating for couples who, for whatever reason, are unable to conceive, there are limits to society’s obligations to help them. Like most controversial health decisions, this is a tale of clashing rights and finite resources.
Last year the Federal Government made changes to the Medicare Safety Net, effectively capping the amount they would pay out for assisted reproductive treatments.
Continue reading "I’m sorry, but society doesn’t owe you a child" »
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Lee says:
@Adam, it amazes me that our parents, grandparents, great-great grandparents and so on back through time, managed to breed without government handouts, so they may have done it tough, they may have had to work thier whole lives to support thier children, but they managed it. But now we have… Read more »
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Alannah says:
If our Government can’t support us then why are we sending millions of dollars overseas to other countries?? Why aren’t we sending boat people home rather then splashing out thousands of dollars each year in goods and services, if I break the law i’m punished yet if Aslyum Seekers come… Read more »
Somewhere yesterday in rural India, the world’s 7 billionth person was born. This event, which should be a cause for celebration, will undoubtedly provoke the population prophets of doom to predict impending catastrophe.
Last night, Sydney was lucky enough to host the patriarch of the prophets, Professor Paul Ehrlich, who gave an address at UNSW on ‘Population, Environment, and the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and Biosphere’.
Professor Ehrlich made his name at a time of population hysteria, the age of Logan’s Run, the pill and the birth of China’s one-child policy. He is most famous for his 1968 work, The Population Bomb, which predicted immense social upheaval, massive resource shortages and the deaths of hundreds of millions of people from starvation due to a “population explosion”.
Continue reading "The Earth needs more people. 7 billion isn’t enough" »
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Recovered Christian says:
I can assure you, as someone who had the misfortune to attend the same misguided ultra-Conservative Catholic school as the author, that he is indeed spruiking such views from a staunch Christian background. We were taught this rubbish in Geography (despite all the science to the contrary) by a similarly… Read more »
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Realist says:
I think this is a great article. Declining fertility is causing major economic problems in developed countries. Eg how to pay the rising cost of health care with a declining working population. Only answer is too much immigration which can lead to other social problems. I love the way the… Read more »
Pregnancy is a lovely thing. Lovely, obviously, because it usually produces a baby, but also because it keeps you warm, excuses cake consumption and ensures you score a seat on the bus.
It also makes everyone smile and ask pleasant questions, which is doubly nice when you’ve had your head down the loo half the morning.
But, for some, the sight of an expectant mum is torture. They may enthuse with the rest of us, but behind the plastered smile, they’re splintering into a million unspilt tears. Because there’s no keener reminder of what you don’t have than someone else’s swollen belly.
Continue reading "Spare a thought for those who can’t have kids" »
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Anne Stocks says:
A Neighbour who I care very much for, has not been coping for some time and even though I tried to help her but with my disability I was limited, there was only so much I could do and because she was not meeting all her Children’s needs the Authorities… Read more »
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Julie says:
There is a man in my church who has worked in the Children’s ministry for as long as I can remember. His wife is also involved in sunday school, but Gary is in every aspect of children’s ministry available. I just came to the realization a few years ago, that… Read more »
Here’s a sobering little fact; Gen X women face a fertility crisis greater than any generation before them.
After receiving terrible advice from scores of feminists as well as their baby boomer mums, many thought it wise to delay motherhood for the sake of their careers.
Unfortunately your biological clock doesn’t care about your career, what car you drive or what your investment portfolio looks like.
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Not everyone wants to have children – in fact according to some recent research conducted by Schering Plough, about 24% of women surveyed said they don’t want to have children.
For the 76% who do, this survey highlighted the barriers faced by women in 2009 that affect their decisions about children.
In this group, almost two thirds (62%) of Gen Y women, those aged 18 – 29, say they will delay having kids now as they are concerned about the cost.
Continue reading "Why women don’t want, want and can’t have kids" »
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Colette says:
Bryndal, fantastic and succinctly put. I too believe in the environmental impact of children on the globe. People think I am some odd, extremist leftie hippie. But I think it makes people like you and me, and hopefully others, more sane and rationale! Read more »
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Colette says:
What a relief to read these posts! I’ve just turned 32 and am (shock horror to most) unmarried, still working on my career path and considering a 3rd degree while working, and not interested in having children. When I was in my 20s, going out and meeting an endless string… Read more »
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