An End to Creating Excess Embryos in IVF?

Jennifer Lahl has this piece up over at The Human Future. Dutch physicians have apparently pioneered a new IVF method with good efficiency rates—using only one egg! This means that women do not have to undergo hyper-ovulation, the potentially dangerous procedure in which women receive huge doses of hormones so that they will release 10-15 eggs. Women can die in rare cases from the procedure.

Let us hope this procedure becomes the norm. It would permit families with fertility troubles to have babies. It would do away with the ethical problem of having to store “excess embryos,” which many scientists now see as so many harvestable crops, and it would be safer for the women undergoing treatment. A true, win, win, win.

Source: Human Reproduction 2006; 21: 2375-83