Fertility Society of Australia annual scientific meeting

Thank you very much for inviting me to join you at the Fertility Society of Australia’s 2005 conference.

I particularly want to welcome all your overseas visitors and international speakers to one of New Zealand’s most beautiful cities --- not quite as beautiful as my home city of Wellington perhaps, but a wonderful venue for an international conference.

When I was first invited to open your conference, I was not aware we would be less than two weeks out from a general election, but that has turned out to be the case, so I suppose I should also congratulate your society for bringing your annual scientific meeting to a city that provides so many excellent Members of Parliament to the Labour-Progressive Government.

Congratulations to everyone who has been involved in doing the hard work to make this conference a reality --- particularly to your president Dr Adrianne Pope, your Board of Directors, and to the local organising committee, headed by convenor Peter Benny and conference organiser Helen McGowan. I know many people have been involved in putting together such a varied and wide-ranging programme.

I mentioned the election a few moments ago, and I am afraid that that event has had something of an impact on this event in the sense that I am now no longer able to make a significant announcement here that I had hoped to make. Well, I am not able to make a complete announcement anyway.

As you know, the National Ethics Committee on Assisted Human Reproduction guidelines on using preimplantation genetic diagnosis or PGD were released in May 2005, and PGD may now be used to detect serious family and non-family genetic disorders without specific ethics approval where the guidelines are met.
When that decision was made, it was clear that there would be a flow-on effect in terms of what is funded. Because such funding decisions have to be signed off by my Cabinet colleagues, the level of public funding will not now be decided until after the election, but I am confident that such public funding will give fresh hope to those New Zealanders who are at high risk of having a child with a serious genetic disorder.

That’s all I can say on this issue today, but watch this space.

As no one here really needs telling, there is an increasingly wide range of people who require fertility services in New Zealand. Infertility is not an issue restricted to one age group, one ethnicity, or one gender.

That is why the theme of this conference, Today’s Choices, Tomorrow’s Consequences, is such an excellent reminder of how people’s reproductive decisions today can affect our society in the future.

If I wasn’t strongly aware before just how important fertility services are to so many New Zealanders, and Australians, of course, the reality was brought home to me in a very happy way in June this year when I was asked to open the new IVF Clinic at National Women’s Hospital in Auckland.

The event was a triple celebration because it also occurred in International Fertility Month, and, most importantly of all, the opening also celebrated 21 years of creating new life.

As I said at the opening, no one was better aware than the audience there just what those 21 years of live IVF births has meant for so many families in this country.

The creation of new life must surely be the most personally satisfying and inspirational experience that any of us could have.

It was a marvelously happy occasion, and I felt really privileged to be able to share the joy of many of the National Women’s families who were present, and, in fact, to be able to cut the 21st birthday cake with a young man who was the living proof of just what a wonderful chance fertility services have given so many people.

Your conference here in Christchurch is a scientific conference, and perhaps therefore just a little removed from the happy environment of that birthday party, but I am sure none of you would be here if you were not committed to contributing to that joy of creating new lives.

As I mentioned before, an increasingly wide range of people need fertility services.

In fact, studies from European countries show that 15 to 20 per cent of couples experience infertility at some stage in their reproductive life.

In that respect, infertility is a relatively common issue, although common is certainly not an adequate description of an issue that can affect people’s lives in such a profound way.

I am aware that social changes, such as the increasing age at which women are having their first child, and the declining birth rate, may have a significant impact on the need for fertility services in the future.

There are a number of causes of infertility, and as Minister of Health I have been involved both in promoting awareness of preventable infertility, and in responding to developments in the treatment of infertility.

In terms of preventable infertility, the Government’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy is focused on maintaining good sexual health through increasing knowledge of safer sex practices. This is particularly important given the impact that infections with few symptoms, such as chlamydia, can have on fertility later in life.

To help implement of the Strategy, all our district health boards have a Sexual and Reproductive Health Resource Book to assist in delivering services designed to cover their regions effectively. The Ministry of Health also conducts safer sex campaigns to promote the use of condoms among young people, and funds the Family Planning Association.

Just as there is no single cause of infertility, there is no single treatment for it. Although IVF is probably the most well-known treatment, it is not the only option. The area of assisted reproductive technology is rapidly changing and new treatment options are being developed to assist those affected by infertility.

This year has been a significant year for assisted human reproduction in New Zealand.

The Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2004 or HART Act came fully into force on 22 August, and signals a new era in the regulation of assisted reproductive technology in New Zealand.

If I can summarise the Act briefly, it:

·Is based on seven principles to guide the provision of assisted reproductive technology in New Zealand;

·details prohibited and regulated assisted reproductive activities;

·explains the roles of the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology and the Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology;

·and it includes requirements concerning the provision of information about donors of donated embryos or donated cells and donor offspring.

Fertility service providers are currently accredited and audited by the Fertility Society of Australia’s Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee (RTAC), but under the HART Act this will eventually change as the Act brings fertility services under the ambit of the New Zealand Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act 2001.

This requires the development of a fertility service standard and a New Zealand auditing body will monitor the way clinics comply with the standard. RTAC has been very generous in sharing its wealth of knowledge in this area, and I thank them most sincerely for that.

It should go without saying that it is just as important to ensure that people have access to safe and effective treatments in this area as in any other form of treatment. The reality is that now 1.2 per cent of children delivered in New Zealand are conceived with IVF, and I understand the figure in Australia is even higher at 2.2 per cent.

I talked earlier about the wide-ranging nature of your conference programme. The conference clearly provides a great opportunity to exchange knowledge about the science of new and emerging assisted reproductive technology, but I am sure it doesn’t need me to remind you that it is also an appropriate time to discuss the ethical, legal and social issues that arise when rapid and exciting developments in health treatment occur.

Perhaps the most rewarding parts of this conference will occur, however, during that time that has been set aside to talk about people’s experiences of infertility and about experiences of people conceived as a result of fertility treatment.

I finished my speech at the opening of the new National Women’s IVF Clinic by saying that every one of the children born as a result of the clinic’s intervention has been long awaited, and much loved as a consequence of that.

So whatever else happens at this conference, there is much to celebrate here in the work that you all share, work that certainly has even more to do than many other parts of the health sector with life itself.

Thank you again very much for inviting me to open your conference today.