On April 8, 2023, the son of Zheng Mengzhu, the first test tube baby in China, is 4 years old. However, this news has made many people feel "disappointed", because in the more than 20 years since the birth of IVF, many people have regarded "IVF" as the imagination space of technology giants "creating people", expecting that every IVF has unconventional talent and performance. However, the reality is disappointing – IVF is not much different from a regular child.
Looking back at the history of IVF, it can be found that this technology was born in the late 80s of the last century. At that time, a hospital in London successfully used "test tube" to impregnate a woman and give birth to a healthy baby. This initiative shocked the world and ushered in a new era in which human beings use technology to give birth to the next generation. With the passage of time, IVF technology has become more and more mature, and more and more people have begun to realize their fertility dreams with the help of this technology.
However, IVF is not as magical as one might expect. In fact, IVF, like ordinary children, needs to receive long-term education and training in order to become a talent that contributes to society. In fact, the advent of IVF has only given a new hope to couples who cannot conceive naturally due to physical reasons.
IVF has been born for so many years, and countless families have realized their fertility dreams through this technology. However, among them, there are also some voices with outdated ideas and discriminatory colors. Some people believe that IVF children are not as smart as naturally pregnant children and less gifted than naturally pregnant children. This view is not only unfounded, but also harmful and discriminatory.
At the same time, there are also some practical problems in IVF, such as high technical threshold, low success rate, expensive and so on. These issues limit the popularity and application of IVF technology. Although the above problems have been gradually solved with the advancement of technology, the social impact and contribution of IVF technology still need long-term observation and verification.
Based on the above, we can conclude that IVF is not a magical, panaceous technology. It's just a technology that can make their fertility dreams come true for couples with fertility needs. Children born of IVF, like ordinary children, need to receive education and training from parents, schools, society and other aspects in order to become talents who contribute to society. Therefore, we should give more respect, understanding and attention to children born by IVF, they are nothing special, they are human cute elves like other children.
In Zheng's case, four years after the birth of his child, he still feels that he and his child have been "disappointed" by some people. As we can see, this reflects some problems of social mentality and cultural factors. First of all, for people, due to different traditional concepts and cultural backgrounds, they have different attitudes and views on the consequences of IVF. Secondly, in domestic society, due to a series of historical factors and cultural traditions, patriarchal thinking and the sense of equality between men and women coexist, and many people still believe that boys are more able to continue the family blood and inherit the family business, which leads to the mentality of obsessing over having boys to a certain extent.
From another point of view, as parents of IVF, they have successfully achieved their fertility goals through modern medical technology, but many people do not consider the other risks and problems that come with IVF before accepting this reality. For example, as we age, the psychological and physical problems that arise from IVF may gradually emerge. Or, since it is a technology that requires a lot of money and effort, this can also cause a certain level of stress and burden for parents and children.
Therefore, we need to think carefully about the problems and challenges involved in taking care of babies and find effective solutions. First of all, in any case, we should value and respect people's right to free choice, whether through natural birth or IVF, should be treated and respected equally. Secondly, we should also strengthen the supervision and management of modern medical technologies to ensure that they do not bring additional risks and side effects during use. Finally, we should also strengthen social education and cultural advocacy, promote gender equality, eliminate gender discrimination and patriarchal thinking, and create a healthy and harmonious family atmosphere and social environment.
In short, the modern medical technology of IVF, although it helps infertile couples realize their fertility dreams, also brings some risks and challenges. However, we believe that by strengthening regulation and management, and promoting scientific, cultural and ethical education, we can ultimately achieve safe, healthy and sustainable IVF technology that brings well-being and happiness to more couples.