ABSTRACT
In discussions about in vitro fertilisation (IVF) the latest success rates of IVF often play an important role. This chapter looks at the German guidelines for IVF made by a so-called ‘Central Commission of the Federal Board of Physicians for the Maintainance of Ethical Principles in Reproductive Medicine, Research on Human Embryos and Genetherapy’. It shows that the power of judgment of the German commission was severely handicapped by the euphoric expectations regarding IVF and by a naive technological optimism. Medicine has distinguished between many different steps in IVF-treatment and has given many different results as ‘success’ rates, for example: Pregnancy rates and birth rates are reported in terms of pregnancies per attempt, pregnancies per fertilisation, pregnancies per transfer. In leading journals worldwide, even in German televison renowned clinicians complained that the results of IVF had been improved by statistical manipulation and that the patients systematically overestimate the chances of success.
