SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Dallas Griffin had just arrived at work this spring when he heard a radio ad announcing a contest for a free round of in vitro fertilization.
"He heard it and called me real quick and said, 'You have to listen to this. You have to go email them our story,'" his wife, McKayla Griffin, remembers.
Soon Dallas, 24, and McKayla, 23, were asked to make a video for the contest, sharing the details of their rounds of failed fertility treatments and a miscarriage. "We walked in (to a medical appointment) as a family of three," she softly said in the video, "and left as a family of two." They described going to therapy, facing overwhelming expenses and ultimately becoming foster parents.
Their video was posted on the website of Mix 103.1, a St. George station, along with four other finalists for the public to support, or shun, with their votes.
As Americans turn to contests and lotteries, pleas on social media and crowdfunding sites to cover the costs of health care, experts worry the trend draws attention to compelling individual stories and overshadows the need for reform and broad solutions.
On one hand, fertility contests and lotteries can help a couple get treatment and potentially have a baby, said Jessica Berg, dean at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and professor of law, bioethics and public health. But it can seem "like a very offhand or casual way to deal with something that we generally view as being a more serious issue."
About 10% to 20% of Utah couples of reproductive age have difficulty trying to have children, according to a 2018 report prepared by the University of Utah for the state Legislature. Of the 31 states it compared, Utah had the highest overall use of fertility treatment.
The state's "strong family-oriented...
