Should People Who Are Obese and Smoke Be Allowed IVF?

This is a question that delves not only into science and medicine, but ethics as well. While the argument has been made that rejecting a possibly life-saving or life-improving treatment or medication to someone based upon their lifestyle habits or weight is unethical, in vitro fertilization (IVF) is not a procedure designed to save lives or improve health. It’s an assisted reproductive innovation (ART) that helps otherwise infertile couples or individuals get pregnant by integrating sperm and eggs to produce embryos, and after that transferring those embryos to the uterus for implantation in the uterine lining.

Cigarette smoking and weight problems may add to infertility, making it more difficult to develop naturally or even with the help of fertility treatment, and cigarette smoking is considered harmful to an establishing fetus. Some argue that participants in IVF cycles be required to quit smoking cigarettes for a number of months prior to treatment, and require that they attain a healthy body mass index that puts them neither obese or underweight. Such steps might help enhance fertility, which may even help them conceive naturally instead of going through a cycle of treatment. Requiring they gave up cigarette smoking may likewise safeguard fetuses from developmental problems associated with mothers who smoke while pregnant. For some, it is an ethical problem of assisting a mom who smokes become pregnant.

Some National Health Service medical care trusts (PCT) in the United Kingdom have actually already set up policies regarding patients who smoke or who are not in what is thought about the healthy BMI variety between 19 and 29.9. Patients are needed to stop smoking cigarettes for six months and attain a healthy BMI prior to going through the treatment. Other treatments, such as hip and knee replacements, also need that patients gave up smoking cigarettes and achieve a healthy BMI. This has gathered criticism from some who see such policies as prejudiced. Critics of the requirements argue that such decisions involving client health and fertility must be made by the patients themselves in addition to their doctors who will help identify what is safe.

This is a concern that has actually sparked extreme debate in some scientific, medical, and policy-making circles, with arguments made for the rights of the patients, rights of other clients, and rights of the resulting fetus. The general public has actually even weighed in, embracing arguments from professionals on both sides and providing some of their own. The debate is not likely to go away as more and more couples rely on IVF and other treatments to assist get rid of infertility.

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