Should the state-funded NHS in the UK pay for IVF treatment for couples wanting children?

In some areas of the UK it does, in others not.

Shock.

Discrimination.

The point of course is that such anomalies are not a bug, they’re a feature. Hard decisions have to be made on the margins about which treatments are funded and which not. And, lo, they are made. What do you expect, public?

So the tedious Radio 5 debate I have just heard misses the main point, which is not to balance the outcomes on IVF in one region as opposed to another.

Instead it should be looking at the overall outcomes. Thus if region A has less IVF but rather more cancer treatment whereas region B has it the other way round, what about ‘balancing the lives not born against the lives extended?

And, of course, no one mentioned that the astounding state of affairs that the British state breezily funds huge numbers of deathly abortions but frets to fund life-creating options.

Welcome to socialised medicine and eventual overt "Mr X, you live. Sorry Mrs Y, you die" rationing.