Forty years of life - the impact of assisted reproduction in Catalonia (part 1)
07/07/2024
Forty years ago, on July 12th, 1984, the first baby was born through assisted reproduction in Barcelona and Spain. At the time, the news made headlines everywhere. Now, around 10% of all babies in Spain are born through assisted reproduction, and it has become available for free in the public healthcare system.Cillian Shields joins Lea Beliaeva Bander to chat about assisted reproduction, its evolution, and why it brings people from all over the world to Catalonia. We talk to Anna Veiga, the pioneering Catalan doctor and biologist who led the first IVF birth, and Federica Moffa, the medical director of the fertility clinic Fertilab, about reproductive tourism. And for the first time ever on Filling the Sink, this episode is the first of two dedicated to a single topic, so remember to stay tuned for the next episode, where we talk to four women about their experiences with assisted reproduction in Catalonia. This week's Catalan phrase is "donar a llum", which means "to give birth".