Doctors Offer Fertility, Other Treatments as Contest Prizes

Attention patients: Bring the most Internet viewers to our Facebook page and win a free … pregnancy?

Doctors and medical businesses in South Florida and nationwide are increasingly giving patients free elective medical treatment as prizes in contests — particularly on the Internet — as a new way to drum up business. Fertility doctors, dentists and cosmetic beauty centers are among those leading the way.

Health care contests aren't illegal, but they draw criticism from medical school ethics professors, who see them as taking medicine too far toward becoming solely a money-making venture.

"Reproductive surgery is not a door prize," said Kenneth Goodman, at the University of Miami.

Hollywood real estate agent Dana Portal loves the idea. She and her husband, Sylvain, entered a doctor's online contest for couples who can't get pregnant. The couple who get the most people to "like" the doctor's Facebook page by Dec. 21 win $10,000 of in vitro fertilization (IVF) therapy. Dozens have entered.

"Some people have been struggling with pregnancy for 10 to 15 years and have run out of resources, so for...