The Hungarian government has announced that it will throw its weight behind increasing the use of in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
According to Magyar Idők, the number of test-tube babies is expected to increase in Hungary as the government introduces measures to support the expansion of in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
The newspaper reports that while the ratio of IVF babies has reached 10 percent in a number of European countries, it is still only about 3-4 percent in Hungary - a country which has about 150,000 infertile couples.
In a bid to boost birth rates, the government has doubled financing for IVF from 2.5 billion HUF (8.1m EUR) and it is hoped the annual number of treatments financed by the social security fund will rise considerably from the current level of 6,500.
According to the report, the government will also spend more on subsidizing medicines, and hope the rate of birth interventions increases from 2,000 to 3,500 a year.