Police Checks For IVF Parents
Posted by Kym Weathersten at 2:00 PM on September 3, 2009
Prospective Victorian parents will be forced to undergo police checks to prove they have not abused children before they can receive IVF treatment.
The condition- which is part of the Victorian government’s Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act passed last December- will affect up to 5,000 couples a year and has outraged many, Melbourne’s Herald Sun has claimed.
Briony and Lew Sanelle, who are hoping to have their second child, said they felt insulted when they underwent police checks three weeks ago and could not understand why couples having fertility treatment were singled out.
“People who have a shady past who they are trying to direct this at do not have to go through this to conceive naturally . . . this is discrimination,” they asked.
While the regulation was passed in June, the Victorian Government currently does not have the resources to implement them. However, some IVF clinics are already asking couples to volunteer, in an effort to avoid a backlog when the laws come into effect by January next year.
Monash IVF’s Professor Gab Kovacs labelled the regulations as “stupid,” saying his patients were stunned when asked to undergo police checks.
But what do you think- are these new IVF reforms discriminatory? Or should prospective parents be considered guilty until proven otherwise?
Most Victorians, the writer included, would support initiatives to protect at risk Children and therefore some suggestions may be helpful. Basic Internet research identified that Australian Politicians and Beauracrats may pose considerably more risk to their children than IVF couples. To support this proposition the following are listed:
Milton Orkopoulos , 2008 NSW Labour 13 years detention, 28 Child Sex Offences
Keith Wright, 1993 Qld Labour, 11 years, Child Sex Offences
Bill D’arcy, 2000, Qld Labour, 11 years, Child Sex Offences
Terry Martin, 2009, Tasmania, Court hearing in progress, Child Porn
Willian Stuart Brown, 2000, Ausaid/Australian Embassy Jakarta Child sex offences
Peter Hollingworth allowed a known Paedophile priest to continue working, whilst Archbishop of Brisbane – latter resigned as Governor General as a result of the scandal.
In view of this, it is fair for the population to demand that:
1) The Police Clearance and working with children requirements for IVF patients be removed, or that this requirement be introduced for all Victorians of reproductive age.
2) Politicians should subject themselves to special scrutiny and police clearances before being allowed to have children on the basis that there appears to be considerable more risk of children being abused by politicians than IVF parents.