Is This Necessary?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28417860
Surely there is no shortage of people. It should not be NHS funded anyway.

[Zeuhl]

a friend had two children with severe health problems, disability and premature death due to mitochondrial abnormalities.

Screening and this alternative would have been much cheaper and prevented years of suffering.

[wolf63]

I have no maternal instinct so I don't fully appreciate how strong the urge is to have a family.

I think that if you can't have kids and there is nothing that medical science can do (unblock tubes etc) then they should consider adopting.

IVF is expensive and it must be horrendous undergoing repeated treatments and still having no child at the end of it. I don't know what the success rate is.

[Peter Pedant]

No it is not necessary - it is a 'patient demand'

[ it may even be a "patient want" ]

In every cash strapped health system ( that is all of them ) there is a debate on what the money should buy....

[Prudie]

No. I can see the TV programme of the future - Long Lost Mitochondrial Donor

[New Judge]

Quite so, there is no shortage of people (quite the opposite in fact - over population is the greatest threat to humanity and sees alleged "climate change" pale into insignificance). No public money should be spent enabling people who cannot have children naturally to do so. It's tough for couples who cannot have children. But hey-ho life's not always fair and they should view their plight as doing their bit towards helping cure over population.