Infertility

In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) costs £3,000 to £5,000 per cycle in the private sector and has a 20-30 per cent success rate, but few couples inquire what the cost is or how many cycles they are likely to need in advance, leaving them facing huge bills for treatment that may not work.

In the US, the average cost of a cycle of treatment is $12,400 (about £7,000), but the average cost of a baby obtained through IVF is $58,000 - something prospective parents are not told before they sign up for treatment.

Professor Spar, who has spent five years researching the fertility industry in the US, will tell the annual meeting of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) today that unless tighter commercial regulation is introduced, Britain will go the way of the US and fertility treatment will become the preserve of the rich.

"There is a market for babies which people don't like to acknowledge.

Doctors see themselves as building families and parents see themselves as conceiving a child, not purchasing one.

Price is not mentioned, parents have treatment that doesn't work, they ...

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