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All this choice-talk takes up a lot of time, and many find that when they finally decide to take the plunge, it is not as easy as they had expected.
Those who run into the wall of infertility are often devastated, especially if they have blithely supposed that they are in control. They are offered a range of expensive options, with variable success rates. IVF for those with relatively simple issues. Donations of eggs if they no longer produce healthy eggs of their own, donations of sperm if they are not in a heterosexual coupling or have a partner with low healthy sperm count. These things cost society not only through taxpayer-funded rebates, but in possible psychological angst for some of the children produced by donated gametes.
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When egg freezing, with all its associated costs and uncertain outcomeslooks more attractive than just getting down to it, we are in the grip of crazy collective thinking, supported by international heavy hitters in the assisted reproductive technology industry.
A 2022 report by the federal government’s Centre for Population, Impacts of Policies on Fertility Rates, suggests Australian men and women express a wish to have more children than they do eventually have. The report found personal financial concerns including the cost of raising children, job security and the cost of housing are the key factors when people consider having children.
What can we do to reverse course?
It’s time we started considering a guaranteed minimum income during the early years for those who have children while under the age of 25. During COVID lockdowns we found a way to support people through a difficult patch through JobKeeper and higher JobSeeker payments. We have to target the people who are going to save our society.
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Parents aged under 25 should also be offered free tertiary education amid a broader rethink that provides quality education at a lower price. AI will make education cheaper, more efficient and more accessible by providing personalised lecture presentations, tutors, and assessments. Finishing apprenticeships and part-time qualifications while you worked used to be the norm in law, architecture, engineering, journalism, nursing and teaching. We are nearing a time when a 25-year-old with children can have a tertiary qualification and four to five years in the workforce on their CV.
The Centre for Population report talks about the importance of being in the workforce as a factor in becoming an adult and seeing yourself as a parent instead of a long-term dependent student into your 30s.
We also know that family formation is supported by home ownership and larger houses in suburban and regional city locations. Greater effort must be made to build such housing. More apartments and higher-density city living doesn’t cater for this need.
Reproductive technology used for the early detection of fertility issues would mean that they can be addressed as much as possible while there is still time to do so, rather than amid complications during the years of naturally declining fertility.
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We are respectful and polite about other people’s choices in this part of the 21st century. But if we are to live in the world that emerges, and are expected to pay for it, then we need to think carefully about what we have agreed to. The money we spend supporting adults who chose to wait to have children should be spent on encouraging young people to have them early. We need to reward pro-natalist actions that will underpin our future. I’m relying on my grandchildren to look after me when I can’t do it myself. Who is going to look after the late developers who forgot to have kids?
Ramona Koval is the former host of ABC Radio National’s The Book Show and an honorary fellow in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University. She is researching a book on the future of human reproduction.
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