“Quebec’s free IVF plan turns children into property”

Starting August 5, the government of Quebec will begin to publicly fund all in-vitro fertilization procedures in the province:

The initiative, announced Tuesday by Health Minister Yves Bolduc, makes Quebec the first jurisdiction in North America to publicly fund the procedure.  “It’s good news for Quebec. We are the first, which means we are the best on this kind of program,” he said, according to CTV.

“It’s good for Quebec because it will increase the birth rate,” he said.  “It’s good for health-care services because it will lower neonatal costs. And it’s good for parents.”

Bolduc says the plan will cost the province $25 million in the first year, and $63 million by 2013-2014; but critics warn that it could reach as high as $200 million per year.

However, according to pro-life leader Georges Buscemi of Camagne Quebec-Vie, this decision will cause much harm in La Belle Province:

Georges Buscemi, president of Campagne Quebec-Vie, the province’s branch of Campaign Life Coalition, criticized the plan for further inculcating the notion that there is a “right” to have a child.  “By forcing all taxpayers to pay for fertility treatments, we are creating this de facto right to have a child,” he said, “and thus reinforcing the idea that a child is some-thing that can be given from one person to another – a piece of property.”

He explained that IVF is “actually an abortive process that kills human beings.”  In order to find a viable embryo, the doctors must “create” many embryos, he said, the “excess” of which are eliminated or frozen.

During IVF the baby “results not from the total self-giving of two loving spouses but from a laboratory intervention in a clinical setting,” he added.  “IVF reinforces the mentality that the child is your property, and that it is there to fulfill your needs.”

“A child isn’t just property, to be manufactured by the government at taxpayers’ expense and handed over to whomever feels they want a child,” he said.  “A child isn’t there to fulfill your needs, you should be there for it.”

Read the whole article here.