Présentation d’Orit Golan nous offrira une présentation intitulée « Fertility treatment during COVID-19 from women’s perspectives: A bioethical analysis of the closure of IVF clinics ».

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La présentation sera suivie d’une petite réception (une collation sera offerte) afin d’offrir l’occasion aux participant.es de discuter de manière informelle avec la présentatrice.

Résumé

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in light of growing uncertainty as to the spread of the virus, health systems around the world shut down or deferred non-urgent/elective medical services. In some countries, this included in vitro fertilization (IVF). This decision had profound implications for many women, especially those who were over 40, for whom time was of the essence, and for those who were already in the midst of their fertility treatment. In some cases, this even meant the end of their hopes of conceiving.

In this study we compare approaches implemented in various countries (US, Canada, UK, and Israel) regarding the closure of IVF clinics. We examine the factors underlying these decisions, such as medical, cultural, and economic considerations. We discuss the similarities in the difficulties encountered by women across countries, despite differences in policies, public funding, and cultural contexts. We suggest adopting a modular approach in cases such as a pandemic crisis, in which fertility care resources become scarcer, by which a patient’s age and treatment status are used as factors to determine prioritization. We also argue that decisions regarding closure of IVF clinics are a social litmus test, allowing an examination of socio-cultural values and attitudes regarding the importance of fertility treatments, and even of biological parenthood, in different cultural contexts.

Biography

Dr. Orit Golan, PhD, is a lecturer in the Department of Health Systems at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College and at Haifa University in Israel. Her research focuses on reproductive ethics and health policies.

She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Bioethics Program in the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal, where she explores bioethical issues related to fertility treatment during COVID-19 and to the use of big data to improve fertility treatment outcomes.

Dr. Golan is a member of the Ethics Committee at the « Maccabi » Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) in Israel, and an Ethics Consultant of Carmel Medical Center in Haifa in Israel, where. since 2020 she has been implementing a unique ethics advisory model that she co-developed. She also contributes since 2014 to the Safed Forum for Bioethics Bulletin on issues related to fertility and policy. Dr. Golan holds a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Biology, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Bioethics Program at Bar Ilan University in Israel. Her dissertation addressed the Right to Parenthood through Assisted Reproductive Technologies.