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The coverage of Nadya Suleman's octuplets has been like fingernails on a chalkboard--especially the misuse of the term implant concerning embryos. The verb choice may not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things (I mean, am I missing the point that the woman just had 8 children--8!--who cares what verb they use?), but I actually think the words used are just as damaging to the general public's understanding of infertility as the actual act itself.
Out of the 50 or so stories I've read over the last few weeks concerning the octuplets, the only source that has gotten the correct terminology is People magazine. Seriously. It felt a little Alice in Wonderland when People magazine was using the correct terminology and the New York Times had it all wrong. In fact, they didn't just have it all wrong--they had it all wrong on purpose as per a quote by New York Times reporter, Stephanie Saul:
We had an internal discussion about whether to use the term "implant" or "transfer." We decided to use the word "implant" because, to the average reader who is not well-schooled in the terminology surrounding in-vitro fertilization, it is an accurate description of what happens. The average person does not really understand what "transfer" means in this context.
Apparently, People magazine believes that they have a more intelligent readership than the New York Times. That, or the New York Times is greatly underestimating their own.
It's a switch of a single verb, but it has major implications in the way the general public views IVF as well as other fertility treatments. Embryos during IVF are transferred to the uterus, placed inside the organ with the hope that it will adhere to the uterine wall and grow for nine months. Embryos cannot be implanted, a verb that bypasses the reality of chance and success and hides the limitations of the procedure.
Why is the correct term important to the 7.3 million Americans who are currently diagnosed with infertility; even those who will use other fertility treatments to build their families and will never utilize IVF?
Peruse the comment section on any recent newspaper article concerning infertility and you will see vehement opposition to assisted reproductive technology. These opinions, more often than not, are formed based on media coverage of infertility topics rather than experience. The main argument that repeats is variations on the theme of control.
The idea of control is easy to see when you consider the picture the wrong verb paints in the mind of the average reader. If doctors can implant embryos, it follows that people believe that doctors currently have control as to which children are born. This couldn't be farther from the truth.
Fertility treatments are meant to circumvent fertility issues by mimicking what occurs in a well-functioning body. In other words, it is the equivalent to having a tutor in school--it is meant to enhance reality and not create an unnatural state. Unless intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is used, millions of sperm have a chance to fertilize the egg albeit in a dish rather than inside the uterus. Not all eggs fertilize, creating the first stage of attrition. Not all embryos make it to transfer, arresting in the petri dish, creating the second stage of attrition. Finally, the embryo is transferred to the uterus where, just like all women who conceive without assistance, it is up to the uterus to create the optimal environment (drugs can encourage an optimal environment--they can't create said environment) and the embryo to adhere itself to the uterine wall. Implantation cannot be manipulated at this point in time because too many factors exist--from the uterine lining to the pinopodes used to attach the embryo to the lining--for doctors to wrest control from the body and nature itself.
Doctors can simply place the embryos in the body and hope just like everyone else that a pregnancy continues with the birth of a child nine months later. See--IVF isn't that different from unassisted reproduction if you take out that whole fertilized-outside-the-body part.
And yet, because the word circumvents the limitations of fertility treatments, those choosing not to pursue treatments or leave the path of treatments are met with incredulity that someone wouldn't utilize this "sure thing." How many times have those choosing to resolve their infertility by living child-free heard the term "give up" as in "why are you giving up
