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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bungelung Calcottin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It is Tuesday,

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Speaker 2: the fourth of July. I'm Zara, I'm Nina. Australia's first

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Speaker 2: free public egg and sperm bank has opened in Victoria.

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Speaker 2: The goal is to help people who for whatever reason

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Speaker 2: are experiencing infertility or struggling to conceive. But with the

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Speaker 2: bank relying on donations, the question is would you be

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Speaker 2: willing to share your eggs or sperm.

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Speaker 3: I absolutely would donate, and it's something that's on my mind.

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Speaker 4: I think for men it's a lot more straightforward, a

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Speaker 4: lot less effort, but for women there's a lot of

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Speaker 4: things that you have to go through to do the

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Speaker 4: egg harvesting and I don't think I would do that

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Speaker 4: for a stranger.

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Speaker 2: We're going to discuss how the new public Sperm and

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Speaker 2: Egg Bank is going to work and how successful it

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Speaker 2: is likely to be in today's deep dive. But first,

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Speaker 2: what is making headlines this morning?

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Speaker 5: Indonesian President Joko Widodo is in Australia to meet with

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Speaker 5: the Prime Minister. Widodo is in Australia for a brief

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Speaker 5: two day visit for talks with Anthony Albanzi, so the

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Speaker 5: fourth time they've met this year.

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Speaker 2: A multi colored arm band that was barred from the

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Speaker 2: men's fee for World Cup in Qatar will be allowed

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Speaker 2: at this month's Women's World Cup. The One Love Captain's

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Speaker 2: ban is designed as a symbol of LGBTQ plus pride.

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Speaker 5: Eight senior PwC partners have been sacked over their involvement

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Speaker 5: in the firm's leaking of confidential documents. The partners were

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Speaker 5: involved in the sharing of Treasury tax documents to advance

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Speaker 5: their client's interests. Former CEO Tom Seymour was one of

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Speaker 5: the eight. Let go And if you're confused by any

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Speaker 5: of that, we've done a deep dave on this story already.

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Speaker 5: The link is in the show notes.

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Speaker 2: And the good news. A baby Eurasian beaver has been

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Speaker 2: born in England for the first time in four hundred years.

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Speaker 2: The beavers were reintroduced in March after being hunted to extinction.

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Speaker 2: It's been labeled a huge win for the local beaver population.

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Speaker 2: Australia's first free public egg and sperm bank has opened

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Speaker 2: in Victoria and it's going to be run out of

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Speaker 2: the Royal Women's Hospital. The bank is hoping to collect

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Speaker 2: four hundred sperm and forty egg donations each year to

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Speaker 2: help people who are struggling to fell pregnant. But in

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Speaker 2: order to make that happen, the bank will need volunteers

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Speaker 2: to offer up their eggs or their sperm free of charge.

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Speaker 2: To help us understand how this will all work, we

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Speaker 2: spoke to gynecologist and IVF specialist at City Fertility, doctor

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Speaker 2: Devora Lieberman. Doctor Liberman, thank you so much for joining

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Speaker 2: the Daily Ours now. The Victorian government's announcement about a

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Speaker 2: public egg and sperm bank is an Australian first. But

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Speaker 2: could you just explain to our audience how have people

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Speaker 2: gone about sourcing egg and sperm donations Up until now.

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Speaker 6: It's been challenging to find egg and sperm donors in

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Speaker 6: Australia because it's illegal to pay them and donors have

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Speaker 6: to go through a fair bit of prednation work before

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Speaker 6: they even get to the actual donation process. So in Australia,

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Speaker 6: most donors would be known to the recipient, or if

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Speaker 6: they're fortunate, they might have an altruistic donor, or they

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Speaker 6: will use sperm and or eggs imported from overseas, or

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Speaker 6: actually travel overseas for the donation.

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Speaker 2: Before I go any further, when we uploaded this story

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Speaker 2: to Instagram, I think a lot of people didn't know

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Speaker 2: that there was no such thing as commercial egg donation

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Speaker 2: here in Australia. Can you just explain that why that

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Speaker 2: is in this country.

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Speaker 6: It's illegal to sell any of your body bits in Australia,

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Speaker 6: So you can't sell your blood, you can't sell your sperm,

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Speaker 6: you can't sell your eggs, you can't sell your kidneys.

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Speaker 6: It's just the way we are. And I think that

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Speaker 6: Australians often are consumers of American media, where in the

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Speaker 6: US you certainly can compensate donors, and donors can make

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Speaker 6: a fair bit of money in the US to donate

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Speaker 6: their eggs.

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Speaker 2: And so the idea of this public spam and egg bank,

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Speaker 2: do you think that there will be enough donations city.

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Speaker 6: Fertility has been actively recruiting sperm and egg donors for

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Speaker 6: well over ten years. We have a dedicated donor team

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Speaker 6: and we would we still struggle to get anywhere close

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Speaker 6: to the numbers that Dan Andrews is talking about being

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Speaker 6: an ink donor. Being a sperm donor is quite a

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Speaker 6: complex process, so we get many inquiries about it for

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Speaker 6: sperm donation, several thousand inquiries a year. But then the

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Speaker 6: sperm donor has to have a senial analysis, make sure

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Speaker 6: he passes muster to be a donor. Then he has

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Speaker 6: to have counseling, two sessions of counseling, has to do

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Speaker 6: blood tests, urine tests, and provide multiple donations, so it's

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Speaker 6: not just a question of rocking up to the clinic

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Speaker 6: once and going away, so there's time off from work

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Speaker 6: to do those donations. It's quite a long and complex process.

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Speaker 6: And then the sperm has to be quarantined for three

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Speaker 6: months or six months depending on the location before it

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Speaker 6: can be used. So there's a lot of attrition on

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Speaker 6: the way. So let's say two thousand men inquire, we

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Speaker 6: might end up at the end of the day, if

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Speaker 6: we're fortunate, fifty or sixty donors who actually jump through

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Speaker 6: all of those hoops to get there. And for egg donation,

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Speaker 6: Donating eggs is a bit complicated, and I think a

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Speaker 6: lot of women don't really understand what's involved. A lot

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Speaker 6: of women will think, oh, I'll just come to the

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Speaker 6: clinic on the day that I'm ovulating and I'll have

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Speaker 6: a quick procedure and they'll take my egg. Doesn't work

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Speaker 6: that way. And egg donors also will have to go

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Speaker 6: through screening tests, blood tests, ultrasounds make sure that they

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Speaker 6: are suitably fit to be egg donors. They have to

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Speaker 6: have counseling, They have to go through ovarian stimulation with injections.

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Speaker 6: They have to undergo an egg collection process, which involves

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Speaker 6: a needle through the top of the vagina under ultrasound guidance.

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Speaker 6: It's usually about ten to twelve days of injections before

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Speaker 6: egg collection happens.

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Speaker 2: So it's not.

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Speaker 6: Terribly on but it's a lot bigger deal than a

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Speaker 6: lot of people think it's going to be when they

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Speaker 6: make the inquiry. So, as I say, there's a lot

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Speaker 6: of attrition from making that initial phone call to actually

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Speaker 6: having eggs and sperm in the freezer ready to use.

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Speaker 2: Doctor leave them and thank you so much for your

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Speaker 2: time this morning.

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Speaker 6: It's a pleasure.

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Speaker 2: We wanted to ask you our TDA audience what you

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Speaker 2: thought about the idea of donating your eggs or sperm

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Speaker 2: and whether you'd be up for doing something like that.

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Speaker 2: It is fair to say there was a mixed response.

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Speaker 2: Some people said they would be keen to donate.

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Speaker 3: I've seen fertility struggles firsthand and the toll that it

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Speaker 3: takes on women's health. And sometimes it's like a really

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Speaker 3: small issue just with one person, and a couple can't

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Speaker 3: get pregnant and they would be fantastic parents, And I

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Speaker 3: don't think that should be something that holds people back.

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Speaker 3: So I absolutely would donate, And yeah, it's something that's

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Speaker 3: on my mind.

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Speaker 7: I would absolutely donate my eggs because I don't plan

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Speaker 7: on having kids and would love.

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Speaker 6: Some to use them.

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Speaker 7: I've got great genes, so yeah, I think it's a

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Speaker 7: good opportunity for people who really want children.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but more people, and mainly women, express concern about

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Speaker 2: how intense and how invasive the process of actually donating

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Speaker 2: your eggs can be.

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Speaker 7: Pumping your body full of that many hormones has such

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Speaker 7: a huge physical and psychological impact on a person that

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Speaker 7: there's just no way that I would do it for

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Speaker 7: no compensation. I think it has such a huge toll

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Speaker 7: on your life, and I understand why there's no compensation

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Speaker 7: for it, but I personally wouldn't sign up for that.

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Speaker 4: For men, it's a lot, a lot more straightforward, a

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Speaker 4: lot less effort. But for women, you know, there's hormone

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Speaker 4: injections and a lot of things that you have to

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Speaker 4: go through to do the egg harvesting, and I don't

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Speaker 4: think I would do that for a stranger. I would

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Speaker 4: probably do it for money, which I know is not

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Speaker 4: a thing in Australia, but I know that can be

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Speaker 4: a thing in America and other countries. But yeah, not

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Speaker 4: for me.

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Speaker 2: The Victorian government has only just announced that this bank

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Speaker 2: is open, and so we're in the very preliminary stages

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Speaker 2: of seeing how this will all unfold. But there is

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Speaker 2: clearly an issue that needs a solution, and it'll be

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Speaker 2: fascinating to see whether this does what it's intending to

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Speaker 2: do and actually provides prospective parents with another option.

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Speaker 5: Thanks for listening to The Daily Eels this morning. If

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Speaker 5: you learn something from this episode, why not share it

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Speaker 5: with a friend. It really helps us grow. We'll be

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Speaker 5: back again tomorrow until then, have a great day.