Quote from the newspapers
:
“Mr Khaw is introducing the
subsidy next month for women younger than 40. He said: 'Age was an important criterion because
the empirical data are quite clear that although technology has
been improving, there comes a time when you can try but...the
success rate is really very low.' “
Many Singaporeans married at
late 30s nowadays. Therefore the financial assistance for
these older couples who have difficulties having babies is crucial,
in fact are more critical than the younger ones.
As our life span is longer now (the reason for extending the CPF
redemption age), if we could have children at age 40+, we still
have at least 25 years to raise them.
Just because a woman is > 40 years old and have lower
success rate, and thus not entitled to the IVF subsidy is, on any
view, unlikely to be regarded as fair. If the IVF scheme could
allow till age of 45, why can't the subsidy do the same?
By extending the IVF subsidies to those women who are > 40 years
old, it will definitely help to boost the birth rate further.
We should have fair policies and age discriminations should be
avoided when implementing policies. We are also contributing to
Singapore's economy as well.
This policy may also further make those women of 30+ years
old more difficult in finding their partners.