Clinic Raffles Could Make You a Winner, and Maybe a Mother
By Douglas Quenqua,
New York Times
| 10. 20. 2012
“That’s right, one lucky woman will win the ultimate chance at starting or building her family,” said a contest announcement issued in April by Long Island I.V.F., a clinic in Melville that offers in vitro fertilization to women who are having difficulty conceiving.
Ramsi and Brian Stoker, who spent over $25,000 in four years on failed I.V.F. treatments, recently won a free round in a raffle.
Contestants were asked to submit “the most emotional or entertaining essays and homemade amateur videos” explaining why they wanted a free round of I.V.F. “Make us laugh with you or cry with you,” the announcement said. “Tell your story straight from the heart.”
The winner, Jessica Upham of West Babylon, N.Y., submitted a video that showed her repeatedly injecting her abdomen with hormones and later weeping on her bed as a clinician delivered bad news. When she found out that she won the contest — a doctor holding balloons knocked on her door the day after Labor Day — she “just lost it,” she said in an interview.
“I feel inadequate that I can’t...
Related Articles
By Matthew Herper, Stat | 07.01.2026
Researchers have created what they say may count as the first synthetic cell, and have started a public benefit corporation to share the technology with other scientists. It’s a piece of science that generates as many questions as answers. They...
By Tory Shepherd, The Guardian | 07.17.2026
Over eight years, Ethan and his wife went through nine rounds of IVF in Melbourne.
They travelled to Spain for two more, without success.
“I thought maybe the universe had decided we’re not supposed to have kids,” says Ethan, who...
By Oscar Lopez, The Guardian | 07.19.2026
Diogo Amaro met his future husband, Loup, in Paris and from the first date, he made one thing clear: he wanted to have children.
“Right off the bat, I was like: ‘If I’m going to be in a relationship with...
By Carissa Wong, New Scientist | 07.08.2026
Healthy lambs have been born via an experimental form of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) that coaxes highly immature eggs to become mature ones in the lab. This is the first time the approach has been demonstrated in a large animal...
