Publication
Title
Deconstructing self-fulfilling outcome measures in infertility treatment
Author
Abstract
The typical outcome measure in infertility treatment is the (cumulative) healthy live birth rate per patient or per cycle. This means that those who end the treatment trajectory with a healthy baby in their arms are considered to be successful and those who do not are considered to have failed. In this article, we argue that by adopting the healthy live birth standard as the outcome measure that defines a successful fertility treatment, it becomes an interpretative self-fulfilling prophecy: those who achieve the goal consider themselves successful and those who do not consider themselves failures. This is regardless of the fact that having children is only one out of many ways to alleviate the suffering related to infertility and that stopping fertility treatment can also be a positive decision to move on to other goals, rather than a form of "giving up," "dropping out," "nonadherence," or failure. We suggest that those seeking fertility treatment would be served better by an alternative outcome measure, which can be equally self-fulfilling, according to which a successful treatment is one in which people leave the clinic released from the suffering that accompanied their status as infertile when they first entered the clinic. This new outcome measure still implies that walking out with a healthy baby is a positive outcome. What changes is that walking out without a baby can also be a positive outcome, rather than being marked exclusively as a failure.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Bioethics. - Oxford
Publication
Hoboken : Wiley , 2023
ISSN
0269-9702
DOI
10.1111/BIOE.13226
Volume/pages
(2023) , p. 1-8
ISI
001076657200001
Pubmed ID
37786959
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Responsible prediction of gene expression: mitigating genetic risk profiling (PredicGenX).
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 30.10.2023
Last edited 01.07.2024
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