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Latest Surrogacy News
Using Experimental Means
To Have Children
The
WBAL Channel March 15, 2004
DETROIT -- Couples who have trouble conceiving often
go to great lengths in hopes of having a child. When
in-vitro procedures don't work, some turn to
experimental treatments.
Sharon and
Paul Saarinen say 3-year-old Alana is their dream come
true. But, after 10 years and 4 failed invitro
fertlization attempts that dream was once a nightmare.
"We went
through some tough times," Paul said. "It was really
tearing our marriage apart."
"I was
willing to do whatever it took," Sharon said. "I had to
have a baby. I didn't feel complete."
Sharon was
told she was premenopausal and her eggs were not vital
enough to create a healthy embryo. Her doctor said there
was nothing more he could do.
"It's so
devastating, but in my heart I knew I was going to have
a child," she said. "So I knew there had to be another
option. I wouldn't accept no."
That option
was with Dr. Michael Fakih, a fertility expert who was
willing to try an experimental treatment called
cytoplasmic transfer using Sharon's own eggs. Taking the
cytoplasm from a healthy donor egg, he implanted it into
Sharon's weaker egg to help it survive. Once it was
fertilized, it was implanted in her uterus and she was
pregnant.
The donor
cytoplasm contains mitochondrial DNA which gives the egg
that energy to survive, but it is not trait-related DNA.
Yet some
doctors say the potential for birth defects still
remains. If you have three people's DNA in one embryo,
the concern is possible chromosomal abnormalities in the
child.
Fakih says
the donor eggs are carefully tested and adds all of the
seven babies he's delivered from this procedure are
healthy.
When the
Saarinens decided they wanted to try and have another
child, they returned to Fakih's clinic in suburban
Detroit, only to be told that the FDA had sent letters
to doctors informing them that cytoplasmic transfer and
other so-called experimental procedures had been banned.
The FDA said in order to proceed, rigorous testing would
need to be done to get the agency's approval.
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