The Queensland government is considering amendments to assisted reproductive laws after some IVF patients were told their treatment couldn't go ahead.
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TVTranscript
00:00Well this is an incredibly complex story and it started last September when
00:06legislation first passed through Parliament that required IVF providers
00:10to collect more information when it came to their donors. Now this meant email
00:14addresses, phone numbers and full names. Some have said that that was
00:19particularly difficult when it came to overseas donors, when it came to their
00:23embryos and sperms and those patients that already had them would mean that
00:27they no longer complied with the legislation. Now the concern here is
00:31that it comes as a Queensland IVF patient, a woman in her 30s who had conceived her
00:37first child using a donor from a US sperm bank known as Zytex, had then looked to
00:42conceive a second biological sibling using the same donor. She was told by her
00:47clinic that that was no longer possible because they were unable to collect the
00:51relevant information needed and that wouldn't comply with legislation. Now
00:55days after she was told this information that it was not possible she then was
01:00informed by her clinic QFG that they could now go ahead with the transfer. She
01:05said not only was the back and forth conversations incredibly confusing and
01:09distressing but it caused her to miss an entire treatment cycle and it also
01:14highlighted the issues that comes with legislating an industry that largely until
01:18last September had been self-regulated. Now the ABC can reveal that Queensland
01:23Health's chief medical officer Dr Catherine McDougall had written to
01:27providers last Friday telling them that the act had never been intended to be a
01:32barrier for treatment and also said that the continuation of cycles was simply a
01:37clinical matter. We've also heard from a spokesperson from the Health Minister
01:41Tim Nichols who has said that the issues that are now arising are simply
01:45unintended consequences from the draft legislation rather than deliberate policy
01:50decisions but given the fact that IVF has been in the spotlight most recently many
01:55across the state are hoping the amendments made to this legislation happen
01:59sooner rather than later.