Room for Debate asks whether the American fertility industry should be regulated more closely. Debora Spar wants to civilize the "Wild West." David Plotz warns against overdoing it:
[W]e’ll miss the lawless fertility business when it’s gone. Its lack of rules spurred innovation, and transformed fertility from a prudish, conservative corner of medicine into a consumer-driven business. Entrepreneurial sperm bankers broke the monopoly that organized medicine had over fertility choices, giving women the chance to choose — no, to shop for — their sperm donor. This willingness to try anything made the American fertility business the liveliest in the world. More regulation — necessary as it is — will diminish that capitalist energy, and bring fertility back in dreary line with the rest of American medicine: more expensive, more defensive, and more responsive to insurers than to customers.
Previous discussion here.
The Dish 