And there is a family in Raleigh, NC that thinks THAT is a pretty cool friggin thing. “cause no where else in the world does a population of people have the money to spend on technologies that cost so much to develop.
5 years ago The Reese family became pregnant. And in 2006 they gave birth to a child. And that’s when the tragedy began:
Their first child, Joseph, was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy six weeks after he was born in 2006. The genetic disorder causes progressive degeneration and weakness of muscles, including those used in breathing and eating, and is fatal.
Joseph died when he was 5 months old.
Because the genetic disorder was not something that would assuredly be passed on, the Reese’s felt that they would have a good chance to have a happy healthy child. But doctors told ’em that they had a full 25% chance of giving birth to another child with the same disorder. Those are huge odds; for me, insurmountable.
So, what could they do?
The couple went to Carolina Conceptions, a fertility clinic in Raleigh, for in vitro fertilization and a procedure called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD.
PGD biopsies a 3-day-old embryo to determine if it carries genetic markers for spinal muscular atrophy or other inherited illnesses, Dr. Barbara Couchman said.
“A very tiny, little laser hole is made in the embryo. A single cell is taken out, and those single cells are sent for genetic analysis,” Couchman said. “We will be able to find out which of the embryos are actually healthy – the embryos that do not carry the affected genetic disorder.”
I’m guessing this little procedure wasn’t free. Or even close. I bet the Reese’s paid through their nose for this to be done. And who would blame ’em? Not me. There isn’t a price to be placed on the joy of a child. I’d willingly pay $20-40-60-80,000 to have a child if I other wise couldn’t.
I’ll betcha dollars to donuts the Reese family paid more for “health care” than almost any other family in the world do in their lifetime.
And I’ll betcha those same dollars they thank God each and every night that they had the chance to do it.
Spending on health care in America is not a bug; it’s a feature.