New IVF Lottery to Launch in Britain This Month Amid Controversy

I think this is the saddest lottery I’ve ever heard of aside from Shirley Jackson’s.

Fertility struggles are known to take a tremendous emotional toll on some couples, and same sex couples face additional difficulty adding to their families due to the cost of involving surrogate in many cases. So to think of couples who may otherwise never have the opportunity to reproduce competing in a lottery for expensive fertility and IVF treatments is kind of depressing considering most won’t win.

But the Gambling Commission in the UK has granted a license to the charity To Hatch to launch the controversial lottery, where winners-couples and singles- will be awarded £25,000 in treatments. A ticket for the lottery costs £20, and some are concerned the practice violates bans on trading in human tissue.

The lottery is set to launch July 30th, and the prize is considerable:

It will not just be limited to couples – single, gay and elderly players will also be able to take part.

Winners will be given accommodation in a luxury hotel before being chauffeur driven for treatment.

If standard IVF fails, they can be offered donor eggs, reproductive treatment or even a surrogate birth.

Do you think the issue of fertility and reproduction is too delicate for a lottery like this? Should the practice be banned?

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