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Widening medical support to infertility: ARTful birthrate increase?
Publication . Lavinha, João
Introduction of the chapter: According to United Nations sources (2010), in the northern hemisphere the total fertility rate (TFR) is below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. A different situation, with the exceptions of Chile, Brazil and Australia, is seen in the southern hemisphere where Sub-Saharan African countries emerge with TFR ranging from 3 to almost 7 children per woman. This situation partly explains the current steady and intense population flow northwards between northern Africa and southern Europe. In Portugal, as in other southern and central-eastern European countries, TRF is even below the so-called “critical level” of 1.5. Longer education, high costs of living, job insecurity, growing female participation in the work force and increasing couples’ infertility are among the proposed explanations for this decline in TFR and birthrate, which have marked European populations ever since the post-World War II period. It has been suggested that widening medical support to infertility, namely facilitating the infertile couples’ access to assisted reproductive technology (ART), would have a demographic impact on the birth rate and TFR. The aim of this presentation is to understand what should be expected from this kind of supportive public policy in the Portuguese population.
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