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Germany ready to inseminate you, minister says
Published: 28 Nov 11 17:11 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20111128-39173.html
German Family Minister Kristina Schröder has proposed a plan to help finance artificial insemination treatments for childless couples in a bid to encourage more people to use the method.
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State insurance plans used to pay for artificial insemination treatments. But since health coverage reforms in 2004, the plans have only covered half of the costs and only for up to three attempts, the FAZ reported.
“There’s no policy in which the relationship between funding and outcome is so blatant,” she told the FAZ, citing statistics showing births in Germany using artificial insemination dropped from 17,000 to about 8,000 per year after the insurance support was halved. That put the number of Germans using the procedures well below European averages, she told the newspaper.
She said she envisioned a partnership between state and federal authorities to help fund the procedures. Initial costs for the plan would be around €40 million, she told the FAZ.
Schröder’s push is part of a larger campaign to ease life for potential parents who would like to have children. The German government wants to boost the country's birthrate, as Germany's population is expected to implode in the coming decades.
Right now German women produce just 1.4 children on average, one of the lowest rates in the world. Statisticians now expect that the German population will plunge 21 percent to 65 million inhabitants by 2060.
This would put immense pressure on Germany's welfare state, because the pool of working people would shrink while the number of retirees increases.
The Local/mdm
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Your comments about this article:
P.S. It's not because they're infertile.
The German model of reducing population needs to be exported around the world.
Vital also to end anonymous sperm donations. It is a crime to conceive a human being who can never know its parental identity. You are not having a child, but producing a person who may live to 70, 80 or more. The identity of my own father was unknown to me and it was a huge source of angst until I found who he was.
Children are about sacrifice. Your brain does not fully mature until you have them. Unintended pregnancy used to force people to grow up. Now, they never have to.
We weren't financially well-off when we had kids. We had to scrape by. But we did and we're better off now. The diaper stage doesn't last forever.
Whatever the motivation, Germany's population is ageing and something needs to be done as before its too late, good on them for trying to find solutions.
For all those extremely intelligent people whining on about overpopulation - yes there is such a thing but no such thing in Germany, or most of Europe or anywhere really except Asia/India/Africa, and while its a nice idea to just import people rather than have new ones it kind of goes against human nature on both sides. Bit like communism.
Granted, this method is a little strange, but if it helps German couples acheive happiness, then its worth it.
No one really knows why the German population is shrinking, but it is a fact that higher income white people always have fewer children. Why? Probably because both parents have a career, there is a high divorce rate and so it discourages marriage in the first place, or perhaps its a culture shift where promiscuity is favored over a stable family life. Whatever the cause, I hope it ends soon. It isn't right for people to deny themselves the natural joy of having a family.
Of course this proposal of full financial support of artificial insemination is an option for couples having a difficult time conceiving. However, I assume Family Minister Kristina Schröder also is proposing full financial support for couples who wish to have a family via adoption. Adoption, especially international adoption (China, Russia and Africa esp.) probably is as expensive, if not more so than artificial insemination, pregnancy and delivery. The couples who do this are still having a family and more than that they're providing a home to a child (or children in many cases) who is already here and would not otherwise have a permanent, loving home. If Family Minister Kristina Schröder isn't proposing these same financial breaks to people who want to have adoptive families then I would have to assume that this has at least a *little* something to do with continuing German blood and is not solely about achieving happiness and the natural joy of having a family. Because, I assure you, adoptive families can also result in happiness and joy.