Embryo Research to Reduce Need for In Vitro Fertilization Raises Ethical Concerns

NCER Comments:

In Mexico, women were paid to be artificially inseminated and then donate the resulting embryos for research. The women had to receive powerful hormone therapy, which carries considerable health risks, both immediate and long term. The goal of the study was to find a procedure that allowed parents with genetic abnormalities to give birth to healthy babies without having to pay for expensive IVF therapy. Instead of creating the embryos outside the womb …

Designer babies aren’t futuristic. They’re already here.

It is now common and affordable for adults to learn about their genetic make-up and any inheritable diseases their genes may carry. As a consequence, the use of expensive pre-implantation genetic testing to weed out imperfect embryos for family planning is growing rapidly. This trend risks relegating genetic diseases to poor populations, while also discriminating against imperfect but viable embryos that are created and rejected.  NCER rejects this disregard for the unborn even those in …

Mom to the Internet: Anybody want to trade my girl embryo for a boy?

Using IVF, a couple decides that they do not want to carry their frozen female embryo to term, so they offer it as a commodity on the Internet to be exchanged for a male embryo. The fact that their embryo is made from their combined DNA is not compelling enough to overcome their disappointment in its gender. This is how the new reproductive technologies turn embryos into economic products instead of human beings.  NCER strongly …

UK doctors select first women to have “three-person babies”

Two women carrying mutations that cause rare genetic disease to undergo radical therapy

Doctors in Newcastle have been granted permission to create Britain’s first “three-person babies” for two women who are at risk of passing on devastating and incurable genetic diseases to their children.

The green light from the fertility regulator means that doctors at the Newcastle Fertility Centre will now attempt to make healthy embryos for the women by merging fertilised eggs created through …