#Fertility Clinic

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A "secure" system can be the most dangerous of all

Two decades ago, my life changed forever: hearing Bruce Schneier explain that “security” doesn’t exist in the abstract. You can only be secure from some threat. A fire alarm won’t protect you from burglaries. A condom won’t protect you from mass shootings. It seems obvious, but how often do we hear about “security” without any mention of who is being made secure, and from which threat?

Take the US welfare system. It is very “secure” in that it is hedged in by a thicket of red-tape, audits, inspections and onerous procedures. To get food stamps, housing vouchers, or cash aid, you must navigate a Soviet-grade bureaucratic system of Kafkaesque proportions. Indeed, one of the great ironies of the post-Cold War world is that the USA has become a “Utopia Of Rules” (as David Graeber put it), subjecting everyday people to the state-run bureacracies that the USAUSAUSA set endlessly ridiculed the USSR for:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/02/02/david-graebers-the-utopia-of-rules-on-technology-stupidity-and-the-secret-joys-of-bureaucracy/

(The right says it wants to “shrink the US government until fits in a bathtub — and then drown it” — but not the whole government. They want unlimited government bloat for that part of the state that is dedicated to tormenting benefits claimants, especially if its functions are managed by a Beltway Bandit profiteer who bills Uncle Sucker up the wazoo for rubber-stamping “DENIED” on every claim.)

The US benefits system has a sophisticated, expensive, fully staffed anti-fraud system — but it’s a highly selective form of anti-fraud. The system is oriented solely to prevent fraud against itself, with no thought to protecting benefits recipients themselves from fraud.

And those recipients — by definition the poorest and most vulnerable among us — are easy pickings for continuous, ghastly, eye-watering acts of fraud. These benefits are distributed via prepaid debit cards — EBT Cards — that lack the basic security measures that every other kind of card has had for years. These are simple magstripe cards, lacking basic chip-and-pin defenses, to say nothing of contactless countermeasures.

That means that fraudsters can — and do — install skimmers in the point-of-sale terminals used by benefits recipients to withdraw their cash benefits, pay for food using SNAP (AKA Food Stamps), and receive other benefits.

It’s impossible to overstate how widespread these skimmers are, and how much money criminals make by stealing from poor people. Writing for Businessweek, Jessica Fu describes the mad scramble benefits recipients go through every month, standing by ATMs at midnight on the night of the first of every month in hopes of withdrawing the cash they use to pay for their rent and utility bills before it is stolen by a crook who captured their card number with a skimmer:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-06-28/ebt-theft-takes-millions-of-dollars-from-the-neediest-americans

One of Fu’s sources, Lexisnexis Risk Solutions’s Haywood Talcove, describes these EBT cards as having the security of a “glorified hotel room key.” He recounts how US police departments saw a massive explosion in EBT skimming: from 300 complaints in January 2022 to 18,000 in January 2023.

The skimmer rings are extremely well organized. The people who install the skimmers — working in pairs, with one person to distract the cashier while the other quickly installs the skimmer — don’t know who they work for. Neither do the people who use cards cloned from skimmer data to cash out benefits recipients’ accounts. When they are arrested, they refuse to turn on their immediate recruiters, fearing reprisals against their families.

These low-level crooks stroll up to ATMs and feed a succession of cloned cards into them, emptying account after account. Or they swipe cards at grocery checkouts, buying cases of Red Bull and other easily sold grocery products with some victim’s entire SNAP balance.

Some police agencies are pursuing these criminal gangs and trying figure out who’s running them, but the authorities who issue SNAP cards are doing little to nothing to stop the pipeline at their end. Simply upgrading SNAP terminals to chip-and-pin would exponentially raise the cost and complexity that thieves incur.

Indeed, that’s why every other kind of payment card uses these systems. How is it that these systems were upgraded, while SNAP cards remain in mired in 20th century “glorified hotel room key” territory? Well, as our friends on the right never cease to remind us: “incentives matter.”

When your credit card gets cloned, it’s your banks and credit card company that pays for the losses, not you. So the banks demanded (and funded) the upgrade to new anti-fraud measures. By contrast, most states have no system for refunding stolen benefits to skimmers’ victims.

In other words, all of the anti-fraud in the benefits system is devoted to catching benefits cheating — a phenomenon that is so rare as to be almost nonexistent (1.54%), notwithstanding right wingers’ fevered, Reagan-era folktales about “welfare queens”:

https://blog.gitnux.com/food-stamp-fraud-statistics/

Meanwhile, the most widespread and costly form of fraud in the benefits system — fraud perpetrated against benefits recipients — is blithely ignored.

Really, it’s worse than that. In deciding to protect the welfare system rather than welfare recipients, we’ve made it vastly harder for benefits claimants who’ve been victimized by fraudsters to remain fed and sheltered. After all, if we made it simple and straightforward for benefits recipients to re-claim money that was stolen from them, we’d make it that much easier to defraud the system.

“Security” is always and forever a matter of securing some specific thing, against some specific risk. In other words, security reflects values — it reveals whose risk matters, and whose doesn’t. For the American benefits system, risks to the system matter. Risks to people don’t.

It’s not just the welfare system that prioritizes its own risks against the people it exists to serve. Think of the systems used to fight drug abuse in clinical settings.

Medical facilities that use or dispense powerful pain-killers have exquisitely tuned, sophisticated, frequently audited security systems to prevent patients from tricking their doctors or pharmacists into administering extra drugs (especially opioids). “Extra” in this case means “more drugs than are strictly necessary to manage pain.”

The rationale for this is only incidentally medical. Someone who gets a little too much painkiller during a medical procedure or an acute pain episode is not at any particular risk of enduring harm — the risks are minor and easily managed (say, by keeping a patient in bed a little longer while they recover from sedation).

The real agenda here is preventing addiction and abuse by addicted people. There’s a genuine problem with opioid abuse, and that problem does have its origins in overprescription. But — crucially — that overprescription wasn’t the result of wimpy patients insisting on endless painkillers until they enslaved themselves to their pills.

Rather, the opioid epidemic has its origins in the billionaire Sackler crime family, whose Purdue Pharma used scientific fraud, cash incentives, and other deceptive practices to trick, coerce, or bribe doctors into systematically overprescribing their Oxycontin cash cow, even as they laundered their reputation with showy charitable donations:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/12/monopolist-solidarity/#sacklers-billions

The Sacklers got to keep their billions — and people undergoing painful medical procedures or living with chronic pain are left holding the bag, subject to tight pain-med controls that forces them to prove — through increasingly stringent systems — that they truly deserve their medicine.

In other words, the beneficiary of the opioid control system is the system itself — not the patients who need opioids.

There’s an extremely disturbing — even nightmarish — example of this in the news: the Yale Fertility Clinic, where hundreds of women endured unimaginably painful egg harvesting procedures with no anaesthesia at all.

These women had complained for years about the pain they suffered, and many had ended up needing emergency care after the fact because of traumatic injuries caused by undergoing the procedure without pain control. But the doctors and nurses at the Yale clinic ignored their screams of pain and their post-operative complaints.

It turned out that an opioid-addicted nurse had been swapping the fentanyl in the drug cabinet for saline, and taking the fentanyl home for her own use.

This made national headlines at the time, and it is the subject of “The Retrievals,” a new New York Times documentary series podcast:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/podcasts/serial-the-retrievals-yale-fertility-clinic.html

If the pain medication management system was designed to manage pain, then these thefts would have been discovered early on. If the system was designed so that anyone who experienced pain was treated until the pain was under control, the deception would have been uncovered almost immediately.

As Stafford Beer said, “the purpose of any system is what it does.” The pain medication management system was designed to manage pain medication, not pain itself.

The system was designed to be secure from opioid-seeking addicted patients. It was not designed to make patients secure from pain. Its values — our values, as a society — were revealed through its workings.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/13/whose-security/#for-me-not-thee

[Image ID: A down-the-barrel view of a massive, battleship-gray artillery piece protruding from the brick battlement of a fortress. From the black depths of the barrel shines a red neon 'EBT' sign.]

Image: Bjarne Henning Kvaale (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oscarsborg_28cm_Krupp_cannon_4_-_panoramio.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[awesomefringey]

what's the Sono from a fertility clinic? what happened?

Brianna posted a pic of her sono/ultrasound when pregnant with Freddie that turned out to be from a fertility clinic. It exclusively deals with parents who struggle with pregnancy and provides fertility and surrogacy programs. Their clients are literally on the opposite side of “I’m so fertile I got accidentally pregnant in a one night stand” if you know what I mean.

The printout had a few more flaws. See a post about it here.

[dailybehbeh]

Behbeh

[darreinhardt]

Advertising Rental Mommy Services

Fem!Darren leaning back seductively wearing only a black T-shirt that reads “RENTAL MOMMY” in grey/white letters. They’re in a white hallway with wood flooring; a white door, presumably to an exam room; and a pink and blue bird maternity-themed abstract poster.

Fem!Darren at the fertility clinic she works at as a surrogate and showing off the services they both offer. Xe likes to, just, walk around the clinic during check-in/up days, showing all their maternally parental curves (best to do it naked or, like here, near-naked). This has led not just to an increased clientele, but a few maiesiophiliac awakenings and some bi/pan awakenings as well (sometimes both at the same time).

Happy Maternity!

[benecare-hospital]

Best IVF & Fertility Hospital | Benecare Hospital

One of life's greatest joys can be experienced organically at Benecare Fertility & IVF Hospital. In vitro fertilization is known as IVF. generally referred to as "assisted reproductive technology" ( ART). To assist your ovaries generate numerous mature eggs that are prepared for fertilization, you must take fertility-specific medications for several months before beginning IVF. Ovulation induction refers to this.

[ottawafertilitycentre]

Ovarian Stimulation & Insemination - Ottawa Fertility Centre

Conceive provides personalized, science-backed fertility treatments to support your journey to parenthood with ovarian stimulation and insemination services. By using advanced techniques, our expert team increases the chances of successful conception.Find compassionate care that is tailored to your fertility needs.

[ankoorfertilityclinic]

Choosing the Right Fertility Clinic in Mumbai: Key Factors to Consider

Navigating the journey of fertility can be both exciting and daunting. For many couples, selecting the right fertility clinic in Mumbai is a crucial step towards realizing their dreams of parenthood. With numerous clinics offering a wide range of services, it’s essential to make an informed choice. In this blog, we will explore the key factors to consider when choosing a fertility clinic, with a spotlight on Ankoor Fertility Clinic, one of the leading facilities in the city.

1. Accreditation and Credentials

The first step in selecting a fertility clinic in Mumbai is to check its accreditation and the qualifications of its medical staff. Accredited clinics adhere to national and international standards, ensuring that they provide safe and effective treatments. Look for clinics that are recognized by organizations such as the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and IVF Registry of India.

Ankoor Fertility Clinic is accredited by reputed bodies and boasts a team of highly qualified specialists, including reproductive endocrinologists and embryologists, ensuring that patients receive top-notch care.

2. Success Rates

Success rates are a significant indicator of a clinic’s effectiveness. When evaluating a fertility clinic in Mumbai, inquire about their success rates for various procedures such as IVF and IUI. These rates can vary based on factors such as the patient’s age, underlying health conditions, and treatment protocols. A transparent clinic will readily share their success statistics, allowing you to make a more informed decision.

At Ankoor Fertility Clinic, success rates are consistently high, and the team takes pride in its personalized approach to treatment, which has proven effective for many patients.

3. Range of Services Offered

Different clinics may specialize in various aspects of fertility treatment. It’s essential to choose a fertility clinic in Mumbai that offers a comprehensive range of services tailored to your specific needs. Look for clinics that provide services such as:

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)

Egg and sperm donation

Egg freezing and preservation

Genetic testing

Ankoor Fertility Clinic stands out for its holistic approach, offering a complete suite of services that cater to diverse fertility challenges, from initial consultations to advanced reproductive technologies.

4. Patient Reviews and Testimonials

Researching patient experiences can provide valuable insights into the quality of care provided by a fertility clinic in Mumbai. Look for online reviews and testimonials that highlight both positive and negative experiences. This can give you a more realistic perspective on what to expect.

Many patients of Ankoor Fertility Clinic have shared their success stories, praising the clinic's compassionate staff and the comprehensive support they received throughout their treatment journey.

5. Facilities and Technology

Modern facilities equipped with the latest technology can significantly impact the outcome of fertility treatments. When choosing a fertility clinic in Mumbai, visit the clinic to assess its infrastructure and technological capabilities. Advanced equipment for procedures like ultrasound, embryo culture, and cryopreservation can enhance treatment success.

Ankoor Fertility Clinic is equipped with state-of-the-art technology, ensuring that patients receive the best possible care in a comfortable and welcoming environment.

6. Support and Counseling Services

The emotional and psychological aspects of fertility treatments are often overlooked but are crucial for a positive experience. A good fertility clinic in Mumbai should provide access to counseling and support services to help patients cope with the stress and emotional toll of the treatment process.

At Ankoor Fertility Clinic, patient well-being is a priority. The clinic offers comprehensive counseling services to support individuals and couples through their fertility journey, ensuring they feel supported at every step.

7. Transparency in Costs

Understanding the costs associated with fertility treatments is vital. Many clinics may have hidden fees, so it’s essential to ask for a detailed breakdown of expenses related to consultations, procedures, medications, and follow-up visits. A reputable fertility clinic in Mumbai will be transparent about its pricing structure.

Ankoor Fertility Clinic prides itself on being upfront about costs, providing patients with clear information regarding financial commitments before commencing treatment.

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right fertility clinic in Mumbai is a crucial decision that can significantly influence your journey to parenthood. By considering factors such as accreditation, success rates, services offered, patient experiences, and emotional support, you can make a well-informed choice. Ankoor Fertility Clinic exemplifies many of these qualities, making it a trusted option for couples seeking fertility treatments in Mumbai.

[audubonfertility]

Looking for a trusted fertility clinic in Alabama? Audubon Fertility provides personalized fertility care, offering advanced treatments such as IVF, IUI, and egg freezing. Our dedicated team of specialists is committed to supporting your journey to parenthood with cutting-edge technology and compassionate care. Visit our Alabama clinic for comprehensive fertility services tailored to your unique needs. Schedule your consultation with our experts today!

[bestfertilityclinicofindia]

Best Fertility Clinic For Successful Pregnancy & Expert Care | Nova IVF Fertility

Your journey to parenthood begins here. Their fertility clinic offers innovative treatments and a caring environment to help you overcome fertility challenges. Contact them to learn more! https://www.novaivffertility.com/ 

[onefertility]

How Certain Environmental Factors Affect Sperm Health: Why Cryopreservation Might Be Essential

[tripodfertilitytoronto]

[generation-fertility]

Fertility Clinic Cambridge - Generation Fertility

Generation Fertility in Cambridge is dedicated to helping you achieve your dream of parenthood. Call us today to explore personalized fertility options that suit you.

[ivfsunflower]

Indian Celebrities Who Chose to Freeze their Eggs

Egg freezing is a medical process wherein female eggs are retrieved and stored. Some of the most common reasons among females Include the option of preserving healthy eggs for future eggs. To understand more about egg freezing and decide whether this is right for you, it is recommended to consult the best IVF doctor in India.

[wombsclinic]

Looking for the best fertility clinic in Pune? Wombs Fertility & Reproductive Health Clinic offers advanced fertility treatments, including IVF, IUI, and personalized reproductive health services. Our expert team of doctors and specialists is dedicated to helping couples achieve their dream of parenthood with compassionate care and state-of-the-art technology. Visit us today for a consultation. https://maps.app.goo.gl/Pdy69zf4KtHEWDGa9