New discriminatory laws for the small percentage of the Victorian population that are medically deemed as infertile came into effect as of 1st January.

What this means is that would be parents, including those people already undergoing IVF, are required to have child protection order and police record checks to ensure that they will be suitable parents.

People undergoing IVF constitute a small minority of people who wish to pursue the great dream of having children.  Yet they are penalised and need to be approved by bureaucrats before they can attempt conception. Its a case where the laws are targeted at a minority.

IVF patient, Carol Poole, has recently been approved to recommence IVF after running through hoops to get Police Record Checks and Child Protection Order Checks to the clinic in time so she can start another cycle.

While the whole process annoys her, she seriously doubts that the Government would have passed these laws if  they were applied to a larger number of the population.

“Imagine the widespread government backlash if the laws were applied to every person who intended on becoming a parent. I don’t imagine it would be a very popular government policy. If the laws were applied to everyone, I’m tipping their would be massive public outrage and the Victorian government would lose their next election.”

“The laws are a joke. No other country in the world requires this level of regulation in relation to IVF. The laws are clearly discriminatory,” she said.

It’s official – my husband and I have passed our police record check and we can now start IVF.

The words on the National Police Certificate dated 4th September read “At the data of issue there are no disclosable court outcomes recorded.” There are five interesting features about this report:

1. The report arrived within a week of being submitted – not the 10 week delay that I reported in a previous blog.

2. That the word “disclosable” is not even a word since it keeps coming up as an error in my spell checker.

3. That I paid $64 for two certificates that state “At the date of issue there are no disclosable court outcomes recorded.” How insulting is that. The report offers the possibility that maybe in the future, I could be in court.

4. This report really it is only relevant for the past, not the future. I could go out tomorrow, commit a terrible crime and quite possibly continue undertaking IVF. No one would be any the wiser.

5. Any other couple who conceive naturally are not subject to getting checked out. Apart from this being discriminatory, it also is a breach of a normal human right which is to bear children.