Caucasian Women Have Better Chances At Succeeding At IVF
Nov 07, 2013 19:27
It's a curious trend, but apparently white ladies are more likely to successfully become pregnant as a result of IVF.
The discovery made by researchers at Nottingham University found that women of white European ancestry had a 43.8% chance of getting pregnant after a single round of IVF, compared to 35% of women from other backgrounds. Overall, 48% of white women who attempted IVF got pregnant compared with 38% of East Asian women, and under a quarter of Middle Eastern and Afro-Caribbean women.
Some claim this disparity could be due to how some of these fertility treatments are into eugenics, which is a science that tries to improve the human race by controlling which people become parents.
Robert G. Edwards, who was instrumental in developing IVF during his career, was also an active member of the Eugenics Society in Britain (that has since been renamed The Galton Institute). From Scientific American:
[Mirror]
The discovery made by researchers at Nottingham University found that women of white European ancestry had a 43.8% chance of getting pregnant after a single round of IVF, compared to 35% of women from other backgrounds. Overall, 48% of white women who attempted IVF got pregnant compared with 38% of East Asian women, and under a quarter of Middle Eastern and Afro-Caribbean women.
Some claim this disparity could be due to how some of these fertility treatments are into eugenics, which is a science that tries to improve the human race by controlling which people become parents.
Robert G. Edwards, who was instrumental in developing IVF during his career, was also an active member of the Eugenics Society in Britain (that has since been renamed The Galton Institute). From Scientific American:
Edwards
believed that increased control over human reproduction could not only
treat the infertile but also allow for socially favored characteristics
to be selected and bred into the population. Edwards himself hinted at
the link between IVF and eugenics when reflecting on the 25th
anniversary of Louise Brown's birth in 1993, saying that developing IVF
"was about more than infertility ... I wanted to find out exactly who
was in charge, whether it was god himself or whether it was scientists
in the laboratory." Edwards’s conclusion?—"It was us."
But Edwards didn’t stop there. He also supported the use of modern selection technologies for predetermining nonmedical traits that are viewed as more desirable in some societies, such as having a boy instead of a girl. Edwards’s technology, IVF, combined with preimplantation genetic diagnosis—the ability to screen embryos for a particular trait before implanting them—are vitally important steps toward being able to select the features of future generations much like we currently configure the details for a new car. Edwards fully supported using sex selection technologies for social and not just medical reasons, saying: “Go ahead and use it. Those parents have to raise those children.”
And a
little more research will also reveal that these eugenics enthusiasts
aren't exactly thrilled at the idea of about nonwhite people having lots
of babies. But Edwards didn’t stop there. He also supported the use of modern selection technologies for predetermining nonmedical traits that are viewed as more desirable in some societies, such as having a boy instead of a girl. Edwards’s technology, IVF, combined with preimplantation genetic diagnosis—the ability to screen embryos for a particular trait before implanting them—are vitally important steps toward being able to select the features of future generations much like we currently configure the details for a new car. Edwards fully supported using sex selection technologies for social and not just medical reasons, saying: “Go ahead and use it. Those parents have to raise those children.”
[Mirror]
