A WOMAN’S ability to have a child is, and will always be, an emotive issue.
For many women, the options for having a family have improved hugely thanks to pioneering medical work done across the country.
Treatments now available offer hope to many childless couples unable to conceive a baby.
So it seems particularly sad that one young couple in Huddersfield should have had their dreams of having a family together denied because one of them has children from a previous relationship.
Primary Care Trusts do indeed have to make difficult decisions. The cost of treatments across many areas of medicine make it impossible to meet every aspiration.
But perhaps the criteria used to decide how to offer equitable access to treatments including IVF treatment should be approved nationally.
For while it is possible to debate the financial priorities which may well affect decision-making in different areas, how is it possible to defend criteria which appear to be based on a social judgement.
How else would you explain the statement that in Yorkshire and the Humber, one of the requirements for IVF treatment is that neither partner should have any living children from that or previous relationships. A harsh view and one not shared in other areas.
