On Memorial Day, I paid respect to the men and women who gave up their lives for my freedom, and upon reflection also realized that wives gave up their husbands, children gave up their dads, and mothers gave up their sons (and daughters) for my ability to be an American.

What an awesome gift. What a calling. And thanks to their service I can also practice medicine the “American” way. What does that mean exactly? Well, it means I have the freedom to treat any patient that desires a family. I have the freedom to use the great breadth of medical research to give my patients the best science has to offer. I have the freedom to discuss with both partners what their desires are and how I can best approach their care to achieve success. While I follow the American Society of Reproductive Medicine’s guidelines and thus am “governed” by a moral and ethical code, I do not have restrictions placed on me that will compromise my patients care.  I love the United States.

At RSC we also love our service men and women. We offer a discount on IVF cycles since most do not have coverage for IVF from their insurance. While the discount is not huge (since our prices are not overly inflated) it is our way of saying thank you for your service and sacrifice.

We also support the recent bill  (HR 2257) proposed by Chairman Miller to the US House of Representatives  that would remove the ban on IVF for VA veterans (injured in duty) and give them the same rights that other service men have.

There are still many countries in the world where there is no are IVF clinics, where not all people have access even if there is a clinic, where the government can dictate how many eggs can be fertilized or embryos transferred, and where embryo freezing is not allowed.  There are people groups where infertility is still considered a curse or moral failure and it is always presumed to be the woman’s fault. And of course there are places with such extreme poverty that the luxury of medical services is a distant dream. We should all take a moment to be thankful of the hard work of the people before and beside us that keep America strong.