Thread: Supreme Court: In vitro children might not be due benefits

"Supreme Court: In vitro children might not be due benefits"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/n...,2325938.story

this is a interesting one, should a fathers child get social security death benefits if they are born AFTER the father has died


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Originally Posted by FreshAir

should a fathers child get social security death benefits if they are born AFTER the father has died

I think it should be if the baby is conceived after the death of the father. Perhaps the couple were planning to have a baby together, then the father unexpectedly died after the mother was already pregnant. This brings up interesting questions of what should be done if the father was expected to die before, or soon after the baby is born.

Why is it an issue at all? Are they trying to pinch pennies in the program by going after these rare cases?

The Oxford Fertility Unit's Tim Child said it would give hope to many couples...

IVF should be given sooner and to older women, says NICE
19 February 2013 - Couples struggling to have a baby should get fertility treatment more quickly and older women should gain access to IVF, new NHS guidelines say.

IVF should be offered after two years of failed attempts, not the current three, says the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. And the upper age limit should rise from 39 to 42 in England and Wales. Some fertility experts fear the guidelines may not lead to changes because they are not binding. In the past, NHS trusts have struggled to find the money to meet the IVF recommendations. A report in 2011, showed one in four NHS trusts offered the full three cycles. Each round costs £3,000. Around one in every seven heterosexual couples in the UK who are trying for a baby experience problems conceiving a child. In 2011, nearly 14,000 women became pregnant through IVF.

The new guidelines, which apply to England and Wales only, state that women aged between 40 and 42 should be offered one cycle of IVF as long as it is their first time and they have enough eggs. The age limit for NHS-funded fertility treatment is 38 in Scotland and 39 in Northern Ireland, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Tim Child, who helped devise the guidelines and is the director of the Oxford Fertility Unit, said the decision was not taken lightly. "When a woman reaches her mid-30s her fertility begins to decline, even more so from her late 30s. "However, many women do conceive naturally in the 40 to 42 year age group. But for those who can't, and who have been diagnosed with the medical condition of infertility, then improvement in IVF success rates over the last decade mean that we are now able to offer cost-effective treatment with a single IVF cycle."

Medical advances mean this age group has similar success rates to that of younger women when the original guidelines were introduced in 2004. The update still recommends women under 40 are offered three cycles of IVF. Some fertility experts raised concerns that the expanded recommendations may not happen in reality. Dr Sue Avery, a spokesperson for the British Fertility Society and from Birmingham Women's Fertility Centre, told the BBC: "It's good that there's the possibility there, but the funding does not match. "I can't see any prospect of it happening immediately. Our biggest concern is hanging on to the funding we've got." The guidelines also introduced rules designed to significantly reduce the number of twins and triplets being born.

'Increased risks'