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New Lending Boom: 'Fertility Finance'

Doctors fear predatory lending for in vitro procedures

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 24, 2012 10:25 AM CST

(Newser) – Poor economy or not, families want children—and with bank credit tight, a specialized industry is reaping the benefits. "Fertility finance" firms provide loans for in vitro fertilizations, which regularly cost more than $20,000. The business looks set to soar this year, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. It's "pretty much a recession-proof business, since the biological clock doesn't stop," says an executive with a fertility-clinic operator.

Last year, firms say, they made some $4 billion in loans, an increase over 2010. But some doctors fear the loans take unfair advantage of the desire to have kids; such worries have prompted some physicians not to offer the services. "These patients are very vulnerable to predatory lending," says one. There's also concern over a conflict of interest if doctors invest in companies they recommend to patients. The unsecured loans can carry interest rates of up to 22%, compared to the average 17% charged by credit cards.

Loans for in vitro fertilization are thriving even in a tough economy.
Loans for in vitro fertilization are thriving even in a tough economy.   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
DaiichiKuronama
Feb 25, 2012 12:52 PM CST
I have never seen a better illustration of the phrase 'throwing good money after bad.'. That $20k figure is assuming it works the first time, which it rarely does. It's not uncommon for a couple to spend $150k-250k for the treatments before a baby is produced (if it succeeds at all!). For that same money, the couple could adopt a child, rear it to adulthood AND put it through college. But instead, the couple gets letdown after letdown, throwing more money into a pit, while a perfectly suitable child gets to be raised in an orphanage.
fractal
Feb 24, 2012 5:19 PM CST
A lesbian couple I know bypassed loans by adopting from Vietnam.  They got a brother and sister--two for one cost!  And the extended family in Vietnam keeps in touch with them.  The father was dirt poor and his wife died--I think he kept his older children, and adopted out the youngest, which he had no time to care for.  
CommonSense
Feb 24, 2012 1:32 PM CST
You, Mr bananana, obviously have never grown up in a loving family of parents with children, nor have you ever been in a marriage and wanted to bring loving children into the world.  Some couples have no choice but to go through infertility... and some have no choice but to take a loan out to pay for the infertility.  In the long run, children are 'well worth the money'.  Apparantly you've been brought up and everything handed to you... never had to work for a living!

 
fertility • in vitro fertilization • loans • fertility treatment • lending practices

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