Article: Frozen embryos' heated debate

[Guest guest]

Another perspective on the stem cell issue.

> http://www.bergen.com/news/embryonp20010820.htm

>

> Monday, August 20, 2001

>

>

>

> By NANCY PARELLO

> Trenton Bureau

>

> When Cole underwent in-vitro fertilization, she and her husband

> wrestled with a weighty decision: how many embryos to create.

>

> The Westwood couple wanted a child. But they also wanted to avoid spawning

> more embryos than could be implanted. The Coles decided to fertilize four

> eggs. Two were implanted, two frozen.

>

> Cole, 38, got lucky. One embryo grew into her daughter, now 6 years old.

The

> other never developed.

>

> She struggles with the question of what to do with the two frozen

embryos --

> a microscopic cluster of cells she considers " potential children. " She

wants

> to use them herself, but can't afford more infertility treatments.

>

> " I'm extremely pro-life, " she said. " I don't want to destroy them. I'm not

> sure I want to donate them to another couple. I wouldn't rule out donating

> them to research. It's a rock and hard place. "

>

> Cole's personal quandary is at the heart of a public debate over how to

> treat an increasing number of frozen embryos, stockpiled in fertility

> clinics around the country.

>

> Frozen embyros are the focus of heated arguments over research using stem

> cells, which are pulled from human embryos. President Bush recently

limited

> federal funding for stem-cell research, allowing dollars to flow only to

> researchers using stem-cell colonies from embryos that were already

> destroyed.

>

> Bush opposes funding research that would destroy more embryos. Scientists,

> and even some pro-life politicians, argue that the potential to help ill

> people is enormous and should be fully explored, even if it means

destroying

> embryos.

>

> But the debate over stem-cell research ignores more fundamental questions

> about embryos themselves. No one really knows how many frozen embryos

exist

> or how they are being used. No government agency tracks or regulates the

> creation or disposition of embryos.

>

> It's also impossible to know just how many of these frozen embryos would

> actually produce children, since many die once implanted.

>

> Frozen embryos have even less chance of survival than a " fresh " embryo.

Only

> about 17 percent of embryos that were once frozen and then implanted in

1998

> became babies, according to the Society for Assisted Reproductive

> Technology.

>

> " Most of the embryos made, unfortunately, are not capable of doing too

> much, " said Sable, director of the Institute of Reproductive

Medicine

> and Science at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. " It mirrors what

> happens in nature. "

>

> Costly treatments prompt doctors and couples to create more embryos than

> they need in a single implantation, so the extras are frozen.

>

> Divorce, the death of a spouse, success in creating a complete family, and

> financial or emotional problems often leave those embryos in a cold limbo.

>

> When that happens, the parents, who have often spent painful years and all

> their savings to have children, must decide the fate of their potential

> offspring.

>

> In a case decided last week by the state Supreme Court, justices barred a

> divorced father from having frozen embryos implanted in another woman. The

> court said his ex-wife, who wanted to destroy the embryos, could not be

> forced to procreate, especially since her ex-husband was able to father

> children.

>

> Most couples keep their embryos in storage, either with the hope of

someday

> implanting them or to delay the difficult decision of what to do with

them,

> according to several infertility doctors and other experts.

>

> " Most couples cannot make the decision that they're ready to give up the

> embryos and have them destroyed, " said Rosen, executive director

of

> Resolve New York City, a non-profit group that educates and supports

> infertile couples. " It's too painful. They see them as their unborn

> children, as a potential, as a hoped-for dream. "

>

> But some couples do let them go.

>

> " A lot of times, we hand the little container of embryos to the couple, "

> said , a Hackensack infertility doctor associated with St.

> Barnabas. " They thaw and they're gone. "

>

> Some people relinquish their embryos to research, although stem-cell

> researchers are rarely the recipients of these embryos.

>

> " That's just one small avenue of the research that's being done, "

> said. " Very few embryos have ever been used to create stem cells. "

>

> Congress banned federal funding for stem-cell research in 1994, but the

> Clinton administration allowed funding as long as private money financed

the

> part of the process that actually destroyed the embryo -- the extraction

of

> the stem cells.

>

> The logistics of meeting those restrictions have long prevented many

> scientists from conducting these experiments, said Leonard Zon, professor

of

> pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and acting president of the

> International Society for Stem Cell Research.

>

> Instead, embryos are used primarily for genetic research and improving

> infertility treatment, experts said.

>

> " We use them for testing new products, " said Skoog of the Center for

> Human Reproduction, which has offices in Chicago and Manhattan. Couples

see

> this as helping another couple by improving our techniques. "

>

> They are also used in experiments that look at genetic abnormalities in

> cells, said Roseff, an infertility doctor at the West Essex Center

for

> Advanced Reproductive Endocrinology in West Orange.

>

> For a handful of couples, donating embryos to other infertile couples is a

> way to help people facing the same struggle.

>

> In 1998, 16 New Jersey fertility clinics reported implanting just 99

donated

> frozen embryos, or 2 percent of more than 3,700 in-vitro fertilization

> procedures performed, according to the Society for Assisted Reproductive

> Technology, which collects data to provide success-rate information to

> infertile couples.

>

> Most clinics did not implant any donated frozen embryos. The two

largest --

> Center for In Vitro Fertilization and St. Barnabas Medical

Center --

> reported the most, with 50 and 22, respectively.

>

> A Wayne couple, who asked to remain anonymous, donated five of their

embryos

> after they had twins using in-vitro fertilization. They had one other

child

> in addition to the twins and felt their family was complete.

>

> " It was a very long and hard decision, " said the mother, who underwent

> treatment at North Hudson IVF in Englewood Cliffs. " We didn't want them

> destroyed or used for experiments. We wanted other couples to get the joy

of

> life. I think it's more selfish saying, 'Since I can't have it, I'll

destroy

> it.' "

>

> The Wayne couple and others who donate their embryos usually do not have a

> say over who receives the embryos. Doctors decide.

>

> A California organization called Snowflake is trying to encourage more

> couples to place their embryos for " adoption. " Snowflake allows the

parents

> of the embryos to choose their potential child's future family.

>

> The program, which is part of a traditional adoption agency called

> Nightlight Christian Adoptions, has so far matched 35 genetic families

with

> 28 adoptive families, resulting in eight babies, with six more on the way,

> agency representatives said.

>

> But some say embryo adoption or donation is a tough sell.

>

> " It's my baby that somebody else will have, " said a Mahwah mother, who has

> one child from in-vitro fertilization and four frozen embryos. " I don't

feel

> comfortable with that. "

>

> Ultimately, the decision of what to do with a frozen embryo is a personal

> one.

>

> " It's all a person's moral and ethical views on things, " said Skoog. " Some

> people look at it as a cluster of cells. If you've had a child that's

> resulted from IVF, you're more likely to look at it as a potential life,

so

> you're less likely to destroy it. But it's an individual choice. "

>

> ----

>

> Trenton Bureau Correspondent Parello's e-mail address is

> parello@...

[Guest guest]

In which case, they could probably still be donated to research on embryonic

stem cells?

Re: Article: Frozen embryos' heated debate

> Pam,

>

> If the Coles haven't used the frozen blastocysts in almost seven years, I

don't

> think they have to worry about implanting or adoption. In vitro clinics

do not

> like to use them after three years as they are not very successful.

Something

> that was left out of the article.

>

> Take care, Bill and Charlotte