Among the downsides of IVF has been the overproduction of embryos, that were then put into the deep freeze. Because most of these nascent humans will never be gestated to birth, they are now looked upon as mere things to be used in research.
The reason we have about 400,000 embryos in cold storage is that docturs used to believe that creating many and implanting multiple embryos were necessary to maximize the potential of a successful birth. Moreover, creating many embryos could make it less likely that to the woman being treated would have to be repeatedly super ovulated—which carries distinct risks.
But now, studies show this may be wrong. From the story:
Some countries limit the number of embryos that can be created and implanted, and the time has come for the USA to begin to regulate the field.The research contradicts the widely-held view that implanting multiple embryos during in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) is more cost-effective, and improves a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant. “At a time when there is an intense debate in many countries about how to reduce multiple pregnancy rates and provide affordable fertility treatment, policy makers should be made aware of our results,” said the study’s lead researcher Hannu Martikainen of the University of Oulu in Finland. “These data should also encourage clinics to evaluate their embryo transfer policy and adopt elective single embryo transfer as their everyday practice for women younger than 40,” she said in a statement....
The study, published by the reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction, found that the live birth rate was five percent higher for women who had only one embryo implanted at a time. The single embryo procedure was also cheaper, especially when health complications due to multiple births were taken into account. “We found that a baby born alive at term using single embryo transfer was, on average, 19,899 euros (26,825 dollars) less expensive than babies born as a result of double embryo transfer,” Martikainen said.
But don’t expect it to be easy. As we have discussed previously, some wish to make embryos for use in research. Some want multiple births. Some fertile people want to use IVF—coupled with pre-implantation genetic diagnosis—to prevent babies from being born with health diseases, for purely cosmetic culling, or sex selection.
But if we moved to a more limited license for creating and implanting IVF embryos, there would be fewer women afflicted with serious side effects, no need for “selective reduction,” e.g. aborting one or more of multiple fetuses, no storing of “unneeded” embryos in the deep freeze bringing with it the temptation of objectification, and less likelihood of eugenic selection of which babies should be born.
Still, we have become a society in which very powerful forces think that the right to have a child through any manner desired—or abort a child at almost any time and for any reason—are connected and should be absolute. They will fight tooth and tong to ensure that the current dysfunctional and unethical “anything goes” US approach doesn’t change.
