The success of IVF has caused a drop in the number of children being adopted, the boss of the organisation that represents children in care has said.
In the last 40 years since the first “test-tube baby” was born, adoptions in England and Wales have fallen by 62%.
Meanwhile, IVF success rates for women under 35 have nearly tripled.
Anthony Douglas, head of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, told the Daily Telegraph the adoption process is “far too slow”.
In an interview with the newspaper, Mr Douglas, 69 – who was himself adopted – said: “IVF used to be around 7% successful and now it’s around 30%.
“So as a choice, adoption is competing with lots of other ways of having children.”
The chief executive of Cafcass – which serves children in England – added: “Every child deserves a family to live and grow up in but adoption still takes twice as long as it should, which puts people off.”
Two-year average wait
Data from the Office for National Statistics suggests there were 12,121 children adopted in England and Wales in 1978.
In 2017, 4,350 looked after children in England were adopted, government figures show. While in Wales, more than 300 children were placed in their adoptive home.
But the falling number of adoptions is despite an increase in the number of children in care in England. There are 72,670 looked after children in England as of March 2017.
Earlier this month, the National Adoption Service put out a call for prospective parents in Wales to come forward to help, following an “unanticipated increase” in children looking for homes.
Meanwhile, Department of Education figures for England suggested the average duration between entry into care and being adopted decreased from 30 months to 24 months last year, because of improvements at the beginning of the process.
What is IVF?
IVF – or in vitro fertilisation – is when an egg is removed from a woman’s ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory. The fertilised egg is then returned to the woman’s womb to develop.
It worked for the first time on 10 November 1977. On 25 July 1978, the world’s first IVF baby, Louise Brown, was born
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On average, IVF fails 70% of the time and it takes almost four-and-a-half years to conceive using it.
The highest success rates are for women under 35 – one-third of treatment cycles are successful.
Guidelines say it should be offered to women until the age of 42. However last week it emerged that in 12 areas of England, women over 34 are being automatically refused IVF treatment on the NHS.
Did you choose IVF over adoption? And if so, why? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
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