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Just had a phone call. I may be doing another interview on being a sperm donor for The Australian. I feel quite cheery and chuffed about this.
The only sad side is that the journalist is from Sydney. Why is that a sad side? I've been asked because they couldn't find anyone in Sydney willing or able to do it.
Which isn't surprising - last I heard there were five active sperm donors in the whole of NSW.
The only sad side is that the journalist is from Sydney. Why is that a sad side? I've been asked because they couldn't find anyone in Sydney willing or able to do it.
Which isn't surprising - last I heard there were five active sperm donors in the whole of NSW.
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Most people want children from a young age, and there just aren't many of those any more.
Most older kids have some fairly serious issues that many people aren't willing to take on. That's not the fault of either the kids or the adults wanting kids, it's just one of the sad facts of life. Some of these kids have been seriously messed up, and some people don't feel they can take that burden.
And the way the laws work, once you reach a certain age it gets really hard to adopt. So if you've spent years trying, had no luck, then decided to adopt, it may be too late. Don't know if it's the same for fostering or not.
My favourite Aunt took in a lot of foster kids over the years. Had a fair mix of horror stories and triumphs. One of the kids, now an adult with a family of his own, keeps in contact with her.
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Whilst taking on a child that has been traumatised can be difficult, I also know many parents who have had their biological children become "difficult" (everything from violence towards other family members, drug abuse, emotional problems and suicide). You never know what a child will be like even if you raised them from day one.
Also I thought IVF had an age limit?
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Adopting from overseas is also very difficult (especially for singles), expensive, takes years and years, and is fraught with situations where you are just about to take a child home and then things change and you can't. Heartbreaking. Some also feel that it's not right to take them out of their country and culture (although if it's that or a horrible life, I know which I think is more important).
Fostering is a completely different kettle of fish, because unless you are lucky enough to get a permanent foster situation, you are completely at the whim of the parents in terms of things like whether they get vaccinated, or even issues like hair cuts or taking them on holiday. Let alone the possibility of having to give them back at any time. It's a special person who does that kind of thing.
When you say people should love and care for children who need it etc, are you applying that to couples with no fertility problems as well? Why are they having their own kids and not all adopting/fostering etc? A statement like that should apply across the board, not just to those who have medical problems, or would prefer not to risk one-night stands to have children.
As far as I know IVF doesn't have a specific age limit, it's up to the discretion of the clinics. But the success rates are pretty low for those much over 40, despite the occasional success story.
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The people I know who foster seem to have long term placements with the kids they look after which seems more stable (one of them has been looking after her foster son as a primary carer for 6+ years), though I'm not sure how they managed to get that rather than short term randomness.
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Err no it's medicare subsidised- at several thousand a pop. In probably one of the few sensible things the previous government did, they wanted to put a cap on it for older women as the older you get the less chance you have of it being successful. Of course there was heaps of stuff in the media at the time about how dare the government not spend health funding on helping older women have babies. I also had an aunt who went through IVF and know that the government paid for a good portion of it.
Compare this to people who adopt from overseas who get no government support until the kid is in country and even then they only get the standard family allowance, no baby bonus or assistance with migration etc. (sorry I couldn't find a link but I read this in a book about international adoption for Australian parents)
This happens when you are a demographer, you remember crazy stuff like this because it affects your work. You also develop a love/hate relationship with Peter Costello!
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And I'm sure there's a lot of things the government pay for that people would object to, to some extent! Eg Quit programs (no one forced them to take it up), lap band surgery (no one forced them to eat), emergency services (no one forced them to drive too fast and hit a tree).
Don't forget that the drive to have your own children is extremely strong, and for most, adoption is only an option if all efforts have failed. And why should some people be able to have their own children and others can't, just because eg their fallopian tubes are blocked, if a medical process can get around it (literally)?
I agree that overseas adoption should be *lot* easier, and the government should help with that, but I think a lot of the restrictions and costs are coming from the overseas countries themselves.
I think you can specify what type of fostering you prefer (eg babies, older children, long term, short term), but I don't know how much choice you end up getting.
The fostering process is pretty intense and slow too. Shame a lot of 'natural' parents don't get the same kind of 10th degree!
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