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Friday, July 11, 2008

In the "it's about time" category...

The government of Ontario (the province where I live) announced today that it is appointing an expert panel to advise the government on how to make infertility treatments and adoption easier and more affordable.

Here's an excerpt from an article in today's Toronto Star (click on the link for the full story):
The 12-member panel, chaired by University of Waterloo president David Johnston, has one year to make its recommendations in a public report.

The panel, which meets for the first time next week, has a broad mandate, but recommendations will likely include how to increase access to infertility treatments, which ones should be covered by OHIP (a great many are not right now) and how to make fertility screening more routine so women get it earlier in their lives and know what their options are.

Here's the government's press release announcing the initiative.

And here's a press release with the response from the Infertility Awareness Association of Canada (IAAC).

Of course, more often than not, reports from government panels, royal commissions, etc., just wind up gathering dust on a shelf somewhere. : ( Even so, it's a step in the right direction & will likely bring some much-needed publicity & awareness to the subject. I'll be following this with interest over the next year!

2 comments:

  1. I will blog more about this, but this DOES have a pretty good shot of doing something simply because there is someone very very powerful behind it.

    Who is infertile, and gets it.

    My only concern is the heavy focus on adoption, instead of fertility. Reality is that adoption isn't the only answer. Anyway, perhaps we can work on that part, eh?

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  2. Fascinating. I will be following this with interest from out west, and maybe try to see if there is any similar move afoot here in my province. Thanks as always for being my news source!

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