Want to have a baby using IVF? Well, first you’ll have to pass a criminal check...
Sound crazy? This is the new reality for couples dealing with infertility in Melbourne and the state of Victoria, Australia. According to news reports, the Victorian Law Reform Commission has required that all couples wanting to go through IVF first have a background police check.
Should the background check find any convictions for serious sex or violent crimes, past incidents of having children taken out of their care, or any other crime that is considered a potential risk to children – IVF should be forbidden to the couple.
Now, I agree that someone with serious sex or violent crime in their past shouldn’t be raising kids. However, are they now going to force everyone else in Victoria to use birth control? And only allow people to have children if they pass background checks?
Of course, that will never happen. This law is unfairly targeting couples with infertility. It’s discrimination. And I think it’s blatantly wrong.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below. I want to hear from you!
Wow… discrimination at best! It’s bad enough that there are doctors who will refuse to treat patients for fertility issues because of weight or age (on an arbitrary basis) but now to add to it that couples suffering infertility will need to undergo background checks is adding insult to injury.
What is next after that? Disallowing treatment for other illnesses or medical procedures based upon history as well? Seems to be a very slippery slope that they’re trying to climb and sooner or later they’re gonna come slip sliding back down and take everyone out with them.
The law does not favour couple looking up to have children at all. May be after trying for ten years no child, then now deceided to go through IVF and the law is now adding to their stress.The law should be pass to guide the whole nation and not for some individuals. The law should be revisited. Thanks.
Most Victorians, the writer included, would support initiatives to protect at risk Children and therefore some suggestions may be helpful. Basic Internet research identified that Australian Politicians and Beauracrats may pose considerably more risk to their children than IVF couples. To support this proposition the following are listed:
Milton Orkopoulos , 2008 NSW Labour 13 years detention, 28 Child Sex Offences
Keith Wright, 1993 Qld Labour, 11 years, Child Sex Offences
Bill D’arcy, 2000, Qld Labour, 11 years, Child Sex Offences
Terry Martin, 2009, Tasmania, Court hearing in progress, Child Porn
Willian Stuart Brown, 2000, Ausaid/Australian Embassy Jakarta Child sex offences
Peter Hollingworth allowed a known Paedophile priest to continue working, whilst Archbishop of Brisbane – latter resigned as Governor General as a result of the scandal.
In view of this, it is fair for the population to demand that:
1) The Police Clearance and working with children requirements for IVF patients be removed, or that this requirement be introduced for all Victorians of reproductive age.
2) Politicians should subject themselves to special scrutiny and police clearances before being allowed to have children on the basis that there appears to be considerable more risk of children being abused by politicians than IVF parents.
this is so streesful,cant believe it,as it is there is so much stress during ivf and on top of this have to get this police check done,always thought australia as a ray of hope ,but the laws and rules are unbelievable,not at all in favour of common people.
I’ve never felt to be under so much scrutiny until my husband and I commenced IVF.
I advise anyone taking this journey to keep it close to their heart. It’s a sensitive topic and everyone has an opinion…. the ignorant and inconsiderate will always share theirs with you.
This discriminatory criminal record checking for IVF patients runs deeper than many think. All couples who have lived in any foreign country for 12 months or more consecutively in the last ten years must also get a police check for that country, as well as Australia, before commencing treatment. In such a global era, when young people are very mobile in their working life abroad, this requirement affects A LOT of Australians seeking fertility treatment. And they are all barred from treatment until they can produce the police checks from all the places they lived abroad. It’s crazy. Beaurocracy abroad doesn’t work like in Australia. A police check in Asia, South America or Africa could take months or not be obtainable at all. This new legislation makes me very, very angry. It is a breach of our basic human right to start a family.
This is a great improvement.
I believe that it is discrimination BUT in a way i do see in where they are trying to go with the background checking but then again its limiting people to even less rights for treatments