Los Angeles Times Examines Issues Surrounding Leftover Embryos

Main Category: Fertility
Also Included In: Abortion
Article Date: 08 Oct 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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The Los Angeles Times on Monday examined how couples with some of the estimated 500,000 frozen embryos in the U.S. leftover from fertility treatments are "finding themselves ensnared in a debate about when life begins." About half of couples who have in vitro fertilization procedures end up with at least one embryo that is frozen and not transferred to the uterus. According to the Times, such couples have three choices: discard them, donate them to research or donate them to another couple for potential pregnancy. However, the Times reports that measures in several states that seek to protect embryos "could ultimately winnow these options" and potentially limit future fertility treatments, according to some physicians and consumer advocates.

Such initiatives include a ballot measure in Colorado that would define a fertilized egg as a person in the state constitution and a proposal by Indiana lawmakers that would allow leftover embryos to be adopted for implantation by another couple. New Jersey legislators have proposed allowing unused embryos to become wards of the state, and Georgia and West Virginia are considering legislation that would grant embryos "personhood status." Most of these proposals are made by abortion rights opponents, according to the Times. Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says banning abortion is the motivation for such measures, adding, "If the Supreme Court allows states to declare embryos as personhood, you would be in a position to say immediately that all abortions have to stop."

The federal government supports funding only for one option in dealing with leftover embryos -- adoption to another couple for pregnancy. Research has found that the majority of families prefer not to donate embryos for adoption, instead opting to donate them for research -- an option that is often complicated by a lack of research programs or state restrictions on embryos. No federal funding is available for human embryonic stem cell research using new stem cell lines, and only eight states fund the research.

The Times reports that fertility clinics lose contact with about 15% to 25% of families with frozen embryos. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine guidelines, a clinic can consider embryos abandoned and dispose of them if five years have passed without contact with the couple and if significant efforts have been made to reach the couple. Richard Paulson, chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, said few physicians dispose of leftover embryos. "To my knowledge, no one in the United States has ever done that," Paulson said, adding, "We're all paranoid that a couple will show up the next day and say they want their embryos" (Roan [1], Los Angeles Times, 10/6).

Additional Articles

The Times also published two articles examining embryo adoption and donation to research. Summaries appear below.

~ "The Embryo Dilemma: Donating Embryos for Research May Be Easier Said Than Done": According to the Times, people who wish to donate leftover embryos to research often face numerous roadblocks, including detailed paperwork and selecting the type of medical research for which they want their donation used. In addition, some couples cannot proceed with their donation if they used egg and sperm donors who would not consent to medical research donation. Some couples often cannot find a medical research organization that accepts such donations. However, the Times reports that researchers hope that as the process becomes more familiar, more couples will donate, especially because evolving research suggests that stem cell researchers might have a need for many embryos (Roan [2], Los Angeles Times, 10/6).

~ "The Embryo Dilemma: Embryo Adoption Is No Easy Mission": The Times reports that when embryo adoption became available about 10 years ago, many people in the medical field thought it would help couples who were uncertain about what to do with leftover embryos. However, Lois Uttley, director of MergerWatch Project, a patients' rights organization, said that donating embryos for adoption carries many of emotional, legal and health issues. Uttley said, "Your child could be raised by another family," adding, "There could be legal implications down the road and complicated feelings about it." Although there are few reports of legal complications, embryo adoption is still new legal terrain that carries some risks, the Times reports. For example, Nanette Elster, director of the Health Law Institute at DePaul University, said that embryo adoption falls under laws governing the transfer of property in some states and that there are still issues of inheritance rights that have not been resolved. Elster said "The risk is that the adoption laws we have in place don't necessarily apply." She added that donated embryos carried to term by another couple are complete genetic siblings of the donor couple's children, "If they are aware of that, what kind of relations should they have? What about inheritance rights?" In addition, the Times reports that the adoption process is further complicated by the requirement that couples who wish to donate to another couple must verify through medical tests that their embryos are viable according to federal health and safety laws. Federal law also requires that embryo donors undergo blood tests for potentially communicable disease before the adoption (Roan [3], Los Angeles Times, 10/6).

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