The fertility business
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| Gaza fertility triplets |
This week we are devoting the entire programme to the business of fertility. And it is big business. Last year in the US alone it was worth $3billion.
Yet despite the fact that this huge global industry deals with reproductive technologies and the creation of human lives, there is little or no government intervention. Indeed, regulations vary substantially throughout the world.
So how much would you pay to have a baby, and to what lengths will people go, to have one.
The number of women seeking fertility treatment is growing, especially among those aged 40 and over. There are several reasons: fertility declines with age, and increasingly women are choosing to have babies later in life, and environmental factors are apparently causing men's sperm count to drop.
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| Debora Spar, Spangler Family Professor at Harvard Business School |
To meet demand more and more new treatments are coming onto the market, and the cost of producing a baby this way can be well over $50,000.
It is not just fertility treatments that are making big money. There are a range of fertility testing devices on the market - the most recent one was designed in the UK and is sold on the internet for about $350. It tells women how many eggs they have left - in other words, how much time they have left to conceive naturally.
Our first guest is Debora Spar, Spangler Family Professor at Harvard Business School and author of Baby Business: How Money, Science and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception.
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| Marcia Inhorn, a professor of Medical Anthropology |
In the second half of the show we are joined by Marcia Inhorn, a professor of Medical Anthropology currently at the University of Sharja. Marcia has spent the last 20 years looking at infertility in the Arab world.
We went to Gaza, home to a million people and under siege since the beginning of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000.
It is poor and overcrowded but despite all of this the business of fertility is thriving.
Everywoman talked to Palestinian couples who have undergone
treatment.
Everywoman special:
A day in the life of Iraqi women
Airing Saturday 3rd March 2007
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| Guest presenter Laila Al Shaikhli |
Coming up to four years since the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Everywoman explores the real issues facing women in Iraq today.
This Everywoman special – A day in the life of Iraqi women – is hosted by guest presenter Laila Al Shaikhli, herself an Iraqi.
With her to discuss the effects of the ongoing occupation on women's rights and their daily routines is Iraqi women's rights activist Houzan Mahmoud, the UK representative of the Organisation for Women's Freedom in Iraq. Houzan Mahmoud grew up in Iraqi-Kurdistan and has been standing up against the oppression of women under the occupation.
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| Iraqi women's rights activist Houzan Mahmoud |
Everywoman went to Baghdad to meet the women whose lives have been affected by the invasion. Filming in Iraq today is a risk and Everywoman's special reporter had exclusive access to four women who were willing to share their stories with the rest of the world despite the dangers they may face if recognised.
Through the lives of these four women – a journalist, a mother, a widow and an activist – we see that sectarian strife, rising violence and a climate of constant fear is reality for these women of Baghdad.