I know. It was a conversation between you and rosathome on Twitter that planted this one in my head.
Broadly:
(1) IVF is a good use of public funds even in a limited-resource environment (eg because the cost of averting trauma in parents who cannot give birth naturally is worthwhile).
(2) In a limited-resource environment, using the available money to treat and / or prevent illness in people who already exist is a better use of funds than investing trying to create more people.
Each of these have social policy implications (eg importance of parenting, seeing children as a right vs a responsibility, possible social engineering if you want more middle class parents).
There's also a position (3), which is 'it depends upon context', where context in this instance is, I suppose, mainly defined by amount of funding available and map of the population needs.
But - I am not sure that I even think that (3) is an entirely pragmatic heuristic in policy formation. There will still be some underlying beliefs that drive that decision, which will be consequential - what is seen to be the value to the general population of going one way or the other. But that view will not be the same for everyone.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2012-02-21 04:07 pm (UTC)Broadly:
(1) IVF is a good use of public funds even in a limited-resource environment (eg because the cost of averting trauma in parents who cannot give birth naturally is worthwhile).
(2) In a limited-resource environment, using the available money to treat and / or prevent illness in people who already exist is a better use of funds than investing trying to create more people.
Each of these have social policy implications (eg importance of parenting, seeing children as a right vs a responsibility, possible social engineering if you want more middle class parents).
There's also a position (3), which is 'it depends upon context', where context in this instance is, I suppose, mainly defined by amount of funding available and map of the population needs.
But - I am not sure that I even think that (3) is an entirely pragmatic heuristic in policy formation. There will still be some underlying beliefs that drive that decision, which will be consequential - what is seen to be the value to the general population of going one way or the other. But that view will not be the same for everyone.