Can a couple’s fertility behavior impose cost on society at large?
IVF costs the NHS thousands of pounds a shot. That money could have gone towards saving a life – e.g. paying for new cancer treatments or researching a cure for Alzheimer’s. Also, the NHS is funded by taxpayers money. Those without children typically pay more tax than those with children (many parents work part-time, or don’t work at all, and receive money through benefits and tax credits), yet use less services than those with children. Those without children need far less healthcare than those with children, their taxes also go towards the cost of running schools etc, which again, is a service they don’t use. Other people’s children cost me a fortune! 🙂 It’s not just cost in terms of money either. People without children typically work longer hours for less pay and benefits than those with children. When a woman first announces her pregnancy in the workplace, it immediately falls to her colleagues to pick up her slack for the next 2 years. They might need to cover a shift while she
When parents seek fertility treatments and have multiple eggs implanted, multiple-birth premature infants often result. This leads to more Neonatal ICU admissions for longeriods of time than full-term single births. It also involves a higher risk of maternal complications and of long-term health/learning problems/disability problems for the children. Few parents in this situation have indurance and funds to pay all the costs themselve for the medical care, and we all pay the education costs, unless the children go to private schools. When children need extra services in school, the educational costs rise. Children with severe disabilities can grow up to be severely disabled adults unable to earn as much money as other adults, anda, thus, pay fewer tax dollars, affecting the economy as a whole. So, yes, a couple’s fertility behavior CAN (but ) impose a cost on society at large, but it maMAY NOT for any one couple and any one preganancy.
