Dr. Mark Sauer, a student in the graduate program in Bioethics and also the chief of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Columbia University Medical Center, is quoted in several recent New York Times features on the complexity of in vitro fertilization (I.V.F.).
Sauer, who ran an I.V.F clinic at Columbia for 21 years, has experience with the way that I.V.F. is sold to potential mothers. "Consumers can be easily overwhelmed by the available data and be unable to distinguish between good medical practices and a sales pitch," he told The New York Times.
In a report that Sauer published last year, he went further, stating that doctors need to be more realistic about childbearing: "... there is a real danger of childlessness if individuals choose to delay reproduction. It should be with guarded optimism that we promote delayed childbearing to our patients, because risks to both mother and child are invariably present; and because many failed attempts also occur, the risk of lifelong childlessness cannot be overstated.”
