If you want grandchildren, pay for IVF for your ageing daughters

Would-be grandparents funding IVF treatments? Sounds wonderful. It is in the best tradition of families caring for each of their members and I’m delighted to see that such coherent and selfless families still exist.

There is already plenty of evidence that they do, of course. Grandparents account for a third of all childcare, taking on the burden of noisy toddlers to free up their daughters or daughters-in-law to go to work.

Wealthier grandparents regularly pay for private school fees, perhaps even hoping the offspring will follow in their shoes . . . to Eton, Harrow, St Paul’s. Even at the local comprehensive, grandparents may fund the extras: piano lessons, football coaching and school trips. The time to be generous is while children are young. Why hoard your money until the need has passed, only to hand it over in death duties?

If daughters get to 35 before wanting children, they are more likely to need IVF. And the cost is soaring. By then, of course, would-be grandparents are holding their breath with hope and apprehension. The yearning to be a grandparent can be powerful, news of friends and relatives becoming grannies and grandads hard to bear.

But there is a caveat: IVF is stressful and often disappointing. Would-be grandparents must face the prospect of their money being lost. More importantly, their own end-of-life care is likely to be more costly than they imagine. Living longer will mean providing for more years without earnings: middle-aged people aren’t saving enough to provide for themselves, let alone their offspring.

As a consequence it’s only the really well-off who can afford to pay for their children’s IVF. And longing for a child pays no regard to money.

I feel sorry for those without the means.

Joan Bakewell , Times Online, UK

What You Sell?

Two Australian businessmen in Brisbane were sitting down for a break in their new store. As yet, the store wasn't ready, with no stock and only a few shelves set up.

One said to the other, 'I bet any minute now some idiot tourist is going to walk by, put his face to the window, and ask what we're selling'.

No sooner were the words out of his mouth when, sure enough, a curious Japanese tourist walked to the window, had a peek, and in a thick Japanese accent asked

'What you sell?'
One of the men replied sarcastically, 'We're selling arse-holes.'

Without skipping a beat, the Japanese man said,

'You doing velly well, only two left'.

Mallu Joke

A beautiful "Mallu" female (from the heart of Kerala) went for a job interview for the post of a SECRETARY and also said she is good at English. When the manager saw the Mallu's colorful attire, gold, well oiled uncombed jet black hair, his mind was screaming "NOT THIS WOMAN".

Nevertheless, he still had to entertain the Mallu. So he told her "If you could form a sentence using the words that I give you, then maybe I will give you a chance! The words are GREEN, PINK, YELLOW, BLUE, WHITE, PURPLE and BLACK".

The enthusiastic Mallu lady thought for a while and said :
"I hear the phone GREEN GREEN GREEN, then I go and PINK up the phone, I say YELLOW....BLUE'S that? WHITE did you say? Aiye, wrong number....Don't PURPLELY disturb people and don't call BLACK, ok? Thank You."

The Manager fainted.....

Panda cub born using frozen sperm IVF

You You, a panda at the Wolong Giant Panda Research Centre in southwestern Sichuan province, gave birth after IVF treatment in what is believed to be the first successful pregnancy among the species using the frozen sperm technique.

"We did try before but it failed," said Huang Yan, a deputy research technician with the China Panda Preservation Research Centre.

The technique has been tried in other countries but this was the first known instance of a live birth, he said.

The sperm from a male panda, Lolo, had been frozen for "a number of years", said Mr Huang.

Artificial insemination is commonly used for breeding pandas, which have a very low sex drive. In 2006, 34 pandas were born through artificial insemination in China and 30 survived - both record numbers for the endangered species. The technique has also been used at zoos in the United States.

However, using panda sperm that has been frozen earlier - instead of from an immediate donor - had not been successful before.

The technique, if it can be replicated, will be a positive boost for panda conservation efforts. Only about 1,600 pandas live in the wild.

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