By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A radio station in Canada is sparking controversy with a new contest offering someone $35,000 worth of fertility treatments.
LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) is reporting that the contest, being run by the music station Hot 89-9 in Ottawa, is under fire for its “win a baby” contest. The winner will receive a fully funded round of fertility treatment amounting to $35,000. The only requirement is that the woman who wins be of age and agree to complete the treatments within 12 months of the contest.
Josie Geuer, Program Director for the New Hot 89.9 told LSN that the station is running the promotion because “one in six people have trouble conceiving, and we know that our audience—we target females between the age of 25 and 54—is dealing with the issue of conceiving right now, and so we wanted to give them the opportunity to have a baby of their own.”
She adds: “We want to inspire people, and give them hope, and inspire change, and inspire conversion because a lot of people are humiliated by fertility issues. They’re not talking to each other and unfortunately for that reason a lot of people seek treatment too late.”
However, Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life organization, called the contest an appalling stunt.
“It just shows how far down the slippery slope we travelled thus far,” he told LSN, “and it’s a portent of what’s to come.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that a baby was offered as a prize in a contest. A top UK fertility clinic caused a similar uproar last month when it announced plans to start selling lottery tickets for thousands of pounds worth of fertility treatments. Winners are promised accommodation in a luxury hotel before being driven by chauffeur to the clinic. If standard IVF fails, they will be offered donor eggs, reproductive surgery or even a surrogate birth. If a single man or woman wins, they will be provided with donor sperm or embryo or a surrogate mother.
Josephine Quintavalle, of the UK pro-life group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said the lottery “demeans the whole nature of human reproduction. Creation of human life should not be reduced to a public lottery.”
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