TVScope: A Child Against All Odds, BBC 1, Thursday, December 13th
The miracle of childbirth is central to Christmas. This makes the issue of infertility all the more poignant at this time of the year.
A Child Against All Oddsfollowed the lives of three couples seeking scientific solutions to their fertility problems. One Welsh couple, Nicola and Stephen, could receive IVF treatment only if Nicola was willing to donate half of her harvested eggs to another woman who would pay for the treatment.
As almost a dozen eggs are randomly divided between Nicola and this anonymous woman, the narrator reminds us that, "it is at this moment that Nicola's potential children are given away".
Nicola, left with only two viable eggs, is faced with the possibility that her own treatment may be unsuccessful while another woman may have her babies; babies which as adults will now have the right to seek her out to ascertain their maternal origin.
Meanwhile, in London a couple, Suzanne and John, who have already undergone more than a decade of torturously unsuccessful infertility treatment make one last bid for parenthood by travelling to Spain to buy donor eggs. The sale of eggs is illegal in Britain but can fetch up to $35,000 in countries where it is allowed.
There is an extraordinary sadness surrounding Suzanne and John despite their rather stoical reflections on the process. Suzanne also realises that success means that she will be carrying a child that genetically is her husband's and another woman's. One of the saddest moments in the programme is the almost wordless agony with which Suzanne and John receive the call that ends their final hope in their last attempt at parenthood.
The third story shows that surgical restoration of fertility is possible if an identical twin donates one of her ovaries to the other. This surgery works and is followed by normal pregnancy for the recipient. It is a tale of ease and happiness all round.
Neither the ethics nor the psychological sequels of these treatments are discussed, but one portion of the programme speaks of the moral complexity of the issue and demonstrates that "not all donor-conceived children are content with their situation".
We meet Stuart, an artist who has been tormented by not being able to establish the identity of his father beyond a crumpled page that lists, along with other sperm donors, his height, eye and hair colour. With the backdrop of his self-portraiture containing half a face, Stuart tells us he searches every male face he encounters for the possibility that it may be his father.
New legislation may require donor traceability, but this programme conveys not just the pain of infertility, but the painful psychological consequences that often accompany apparent scientific solutions.