IVF couples willing to donate extra embryos - January 5, 2004

The majority of couples having IVF treatment in their attempts to have a baby would be willing to donate any extra embryos for stem cell research, a study claimed today.

This controversial area of scientific research has sparked outrage from pro-life campaigners and Catholic communities who believe embryos are a human life and should not be manipulated in this way.

But a survey of couples at the Newcastle Fertility Centre found that 57% who were asked to consider donation of their surplus embryos chose to give their consent.

Fertility experts said so long as IVF patients were given full information about the needs, uses and benefits of embryonic stem cells in medical research they were more likely to look on it favourably.

The couples were given information on stem cell research, including the potential of future therapies for serious diseases.

Louise Brown, the world’s first “test tube” baby, was born by Caesarean section at the Royal Oldham Hospital in 1978.

In 1975, Professor Robert Edwards and gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe succeeded in producing an IVF pregnancy – but the pregnancy was ectopic, developing in a Fallopian tube instead of the womb, and had to be terminated.

Two years later Edwards and Steptoe removed a single ripe egg from the ovary of Louise’s mother, Lesley, and fertilised it in a glass dish with sperm from her husband. The resulting embryo was implanted back into Lesley’s body, and she became pregnant.

A draft recommendation by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, which is expected to be implemented next year, will entitle thousands of women aged between 23 and 39 to free IVF treatment.

Couples pay clinics across the country about Ł3,000 for each attempt at IVF treatment costs.

Only one in five of these is funded by the NHS.

Since 1991/1992, the number of children born from IVF treatment has almost trebled and success rates have nearly doubled.

Other treatments for infertility include ovulation induction, intrauterine insemination, intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), egg/sperm donation and embryo donation.