Embryo, Moral Status of the

The Embryo Dilemma

Los Angeles Times health reporter Shari Roan has a terrific series on “the politics of embryos.” (Bonus: One piece quotes The New Atlantis’s own Yuval Levin.) 

Six years of frustration and heartbreak. That’s how Gina Rathan recalls her attempts to become pregnant.

Finally, she and her husband, Cheddi, conceived a daughter, now 3, through in vitro fertilization. About a year later, she became pregnant with a second child, naturally. Their family was complete.

Then, a year ago, the Fountain Valley couple received a bill reminding them that their infertility journey wasn’t quite over. They owed $750 to preserve three frozen embryos they’d created but hadn’t used....

Finally, the couple paid for three more years of cryopreservation.

“I think about the embryos every day,” Rathan says. “I am their mother. I see them as my own children. They are the DNA from my husband and I. It’s something I worry about, especially when the three years is over and I have to make a decision again.” 

ALSO IN THE LAT: How easy is it to donate embryos to research? Or for adoption? Embryo legislation, state by state.

posted by Cheryl Miller | 9:27 am
File As: Bioethics and Medicine, Stem Cell Research, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Embryo, Moral Status of the, Embryo Adoption, Frozen Embryos

ART in the News

IVF is not so easy, fertility coaching, and more

• Stanford researchers try to improve IVF odds.
   
• This weekend, the first baby in the U.K. guaranteed not to have the breast cancer gene was born. So where will genetic screening lead? Slashdot debates.
   
• California wants to pay women for eggs for stem cell research.
   
• A Minnesota woman tries to conceive her husband’s child ... after his death.
   
• “To anyone who thinks IVF is an easy option, take it from me, it definitely isn’t.”
   
• Fertility coaching: Does it work?
   
• Increased risk of depression after a successful IVF pregnancy.
   
• Dream baby arrives ... by bus.
   
• In the U.K., “one egg” IVF strategy launched.
   
• Alone and pregnant on purpose: Single moms in Canada commiserate.
   
• Human-pig hybrid embryos given go ahead.

posted by Cheryl Miller | 8:40 am
File As: Bioethics and Medicine, Stem Cell Research, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, In Vitro Fertilization, Embryo, Moral Status of the, Egg Donation

ART in the News: Weekend Round-Up Edition

"Frankenstein Science," Quadruplets, A Gene for Infertility, and More

• For years, sperm banks have focused solely on sperm donors and the women they get pregnant—not the offspring they produce. That's about to change.
  
• Who's more likely to be treated: a premature infant, or an older patient with a lower chance of survival?
  
• "Frankenstein Science": Has Britain lost its way?
  
• "The hardest decision is knowing when to stop treatment. You always think, 'What if the next one works?'"
  
• Do all women have the right to become mothers?
  
• An unusual set of quadruplets: A Nigerian woman gives birth to identical twins and fraternal twins.
  
• "You can walk in and say your sister got pregnant and everyone else will say 'Oh my God, we hate her too.'"
  
• Germany decries Britain's new ART law.
  
• A gene for infertility?
  
• More repro-lit: The pregnant man writes a memoir. A new play about how people become parents.
  
• Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards feud over "sperm donation" email.
  
• Natural remedies for infertility? Acupuncture gains popularity.
  
• The "next big advance in IVF": DNA fingerprinting.
  
• Babies born preterm are more than twice as likely to have major birth defects as full-term infants.

posted by Cheryl Miller | 9:46 am
File As: Bioethics and Medicine, Stem Cell Research, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, In Vitro Fertilization, Embryo, Moral Status of the, Cloning, ART in popular culture, GLBT Parents, Sperm Donation, Third-Party Reproduction

ART in the News: International Edition

Infertility Awareness Week, the HFEA, and more

• It's infertility awareness week in Canada. More Canadians are looking to the U.S. for egg donors.
   
• One in five Irish couples experience infertility.
   
• In the U.K.: A good summary of the debate over the HFEA. Do embryos need fathers? Despite a recent defeat, the abortion debate is heating up. Is Britain "one step closer to designer babies?" How about cybrids?
   
• Gordon Brown defends embryo research: a "moral endeavor" that can save the "lives of millions."
   
• Simon Jenkins: "MPs should stop meddling in how people choose to plan and protect their families. They have enough trouble with their own."
   
• South Korea bans cross-species cloning. Disgraced stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-Suk will clone dogs for cash.

posted by Cheryl Miller | 3:30 pm
File As: Bioethics and Medicine, Stem Cell Research, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, In Vitro Fertilization, Embryo, Moral Status of the, Cloning, Egg Donation, GLBT Parents, Third-Party Reproduction