IVF versus adoption: Which is better?

For couples who want children but can't conceive naturally, this is a personal crisis and its every hard to deal with it.

Of course there is no one right answer. Adoption and in vitro fertilization both carry financial, medical, and family dynamic risks.

With Hollywood luminaries like Sandra Bullock, Tom Cruise, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie going the adoption route, and other late-in-life parents risking medical intervention to see their own genes replicate in a biological birth, the debate continues about what is best for the individual, our culture, and the planet.

Let's start with economics. The average cost of in vitro is nearly $3,000 per cycle and adoption costs anywhere from $5,000 to $40,000. Also many cycles of in vitro are often required to create a pregnancy that goes full term. The success rate is to 20-30 percent for women aged 38-40, and if you opt it early it may have better chances and for women over forty, it is as low as 5-10 percent. Then there are the medical complications that can rack up more costs. Laparoscopy used to extract eggs carries risks related to the anesthesia. Then there are risks of infection, bleeding, damage to the bowel, bladder, or a blood vessel. Surgery to repair damage can also be costly.

And then there are the emotional factor, risks and rewards. Some people believe that there is no greater joy and meaning in life than to watch one's own genes blend with a loved one’s and prosper. Others think -- a parent is the person who raises a child, not the one who throws genetic material their way.

Indeed, recent studies on non-biological caregivers and adoptive parents point to hormonal changes in the adult that occur through the acts of bonding and nurturing. And with steady rates of one in five women over the age of forty being childless, a case can be made that nature's intention was for a village of caregivers to nurture any given child.

Then there are Legal Issues. If you are NRI and adopting a child, the process it self take around 2 year and lot of Legal things.

Ivf is good if you plan this early and properly, and come with great satisfaction. It may cost you high but worth spending. But if you already crossed 40, then adoption is good idea coz that help you not to fight with your health and low performance of IVF cycle.