As Josephine Marcotty and I explored our series on high-tech infertility treatments over the last few months, it struck us how divisive the issue of having children - or not - can be in our society. Are children a right or a privilege? And for those of us unlucky enough not to be able to get pregnant naturally, is infertility a disease?

We decided to ask health insurers to answer this question. We spoke to medical officers - the doctors who help draw up coverage guidelines for health plans - and found just as much division there. It turns out that health plans differ quite a bit in what they cover. And most don’t cover the most expensive procedure of all - in vitro fertilization.

We also talked to some of the most popular infertility doctors in the Twin Cities about what drives a patient to seek medical help to have a baby. Some couples go into debt to pay for it since their health plans won’t. One comment by Dr. Richard Kopher, an ob/gyn with HealthPartners in St. Paul, really struck us: “For these people, the drive to reproduce is up there with hunger and pain.”

Hunger and pain.

Our article today doesn’t pretend to answer the question - Is a baby a right or a privilege? - but it does ask you to think about what your answer might be.

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