artificial inskewination

For a number of years, i've bristled every time i hear someone talk about the risks for older women having babies. Birth defects, "chromosomal abnormalities" - yikes! Women alter the course of their very lives based upon this knowledge. And every time i hear it, something inside me goes, "No. Stop. You're taking something on faith, because the scientific establishment is telling you to. But i think we're getting this one wrong."
I don't doubt the sincerity of the studies that support these conclusions, but i think that something, somewhere, is skewing the data. I just don't buy that biology is so sloppy. If these numbers were really true, our bodies would have evolved to stop making babies at an earlier age. Somewhere, somehow, scientific misconception (Rim shot! Sorry.) has led us down the garden path.
I've kept these thoughts to myself for years, not having any clue where the error may lie.
I think i've finally found it.
The numbers are being skewed by artificial insemination. By in vetro fertilization. And any of the other ways in which we play god with our reproductive systems.
When we talk about birth defects in babies born to older women, what percentage of those births use some form of artificial conception? If we compare only natural numbers among women of all ages, i suspect the "older woman" risks would substantially disappear. Perhaps not entirely - the "old egg" theory probably has some basis in reality. But that reality may be so negligible that doctors in the future will no longer automatically give the "danger" speech to any woman over the age of....what's the current benchmark? One would think forty, but i wouldn't be surprised if it's gone even lower.
So how is our science betraying us?
Because the body knows what it's doing, when it comes to baby-making. We've been making babies for a long, loooooong time. Science adds to our knowledge of human sexuality a little bit every day. The newest research is showing that impregnation is a WHOLE lot less random than we ever imagined. Humans, in our natural state (something that hasn't existed for thousands of years, except in pockets of pre-agricultural communities), are eye-poppingly promiscuous. And when a man and woman are attracted, it's no accident. Our bodies don't just want to make babies, though - they want to make GOOD babies. In ways we don't yet understand, our bodies are capable of discerning which potential mate would be a good genetic match, in regard to the immunological constitution of potential offspring and such. This isn't about darwinian superiority, but rather about how two different sets of DNA will match up. This is why one out of every ten perfectly healthy couples are functionally infertile...and why we can assume that a corresponding number of couples are SUPER-fertile! Our bodies can make these judgments about potential mates, even before we've had sex with them. When two people are powerfully drawn to one another, nature is shouting "Humping, get to the HUMPING!" Nature is calling for good babies - and it doesn't stop there. When a female body has a sperm donation it's thrilled with, her cervix is capable of storing that sperm for as long as five days, patiently waiting for ovulation. If she has sex in the meantime with other males who are less genetically desirable, her body is capable of keeping their sperm from nesting happily.
Are you starting to see where playing god might be getting us in trouble?
Another statistic that's long bothered me is the stunning failure rate of artificial insemination, and more specifically, in vetro fertilization. Once you understand how IVF works, you'll be astounded to learn that it EVER fails (talk about a stacked deck). Yet the failure rate hovers resolutely around 80%. Why???
Because nature didn't choose those eggs and sperm.
Sometimes we can fool the body, if we stack the deck strongly, maybe even over and over. A baby is born.
Are you starting to see how artificially-conceived fetuses might be more prone to things like birth defects?
More and more, women wait longer to have children. Add to that the length of time "infertile" women wait before trying unnatural means...can there be any doubt that artificial conception rates are higher among older women?
I'm sympathetic to the longing of any woman who turns to artificial means. However, there is a bald-faced arrogance underlying any application of such procedures. It's an age-old human problem - if we CAN do something, we don't worry so much about whether we SHOULD do it. If it serves our immediate desires, it becomes "right".
But we're not smarter than the body. Not yet, and not by a long shot. Our doctors have a lot to answer for in this equation. If a woman waves money in a doctor's face, who among them stops to ask the larger, ethical questions? Many of our doctors are well-meaning, i'm sure. But in the big picture, that's a limited excuse. When we wave wads of cash at them, we're paying them to be smarter than us. At what point, as science becomes more aware of how sexuality works, will doctors turn their backs on what they suspect or know, because they're on the receiving end of a billion dollar industry?
How many are already there?
Money is the ultimate corrupter - if only doctors made a set salary, instead of getting richer depending on how many procedures or pills they sell. If only. We need a name for a system like that, something like..."socialized medicine"? I like that, it's catchy.
But if you or any woman you know want a baby, and it's not working the old-fashioned way, you haven't tried the more bona fide old-fashioned way. Try another man. Try three.
Try one who makes your knees feel funny.
If that doesn't jibe with your morality, it's time to get past your possessive immaturity over "biological parentage". It's time for all of us to care for every baby born, not just the ones we might pass on our greedily-hoarded possessions to. The "that's not my baby" syndrome is one of the key sicknesses of present-day humanity.
At this moment in history, statistics give us "warning signals" for older women having babies.
But leave them older women alone. Don't scare them into not having babies, and don't saddle them with potentially-defective offspring by playing god.