Guardian | Thousands of 'neglected' frozen embryos destroyed
Sarah Boseley, Health Correspondent
Friday April 14, 2000
Guardian
Thousands of embryos created and stored during fertility treatment are being destroyed because the couples involved will not respond to letters from clinics, asking what they want done with them.
Brian Lieberman and colleagues from the University of Manchester and Manchester Fertility Services report in this week's Lancet medical journal on the fate o
f 1,344 embryos in two of Britain's fertility clinics. Two thirds of the embryos - 904 in total - have had to be destroyed once five years has elapsed - either because that was what the couple involved requested (29%) or in half the cases because the couple did not respond to the clinics' attempts to contact them.
There were 118 licenced fertility clinics by the end of last August. If the destruction rate is similar in all or most of them, the numbers that have already had to perish must run into tens of thousands.
The Manchester embryos were created between 1988 and 1994 at St Mary's hospital where the NHS funds treatment and the other at the private Manchester Fertility Services clinic.
During fertility treatment, more embryos are invariably created than are permitted to be put back. Under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, up to three embryos can be replaced. The rest can be donated to other couples or for research into fertility problems or they can be cryopreserved - frozen in liquid nitrogen. If the treatment fails, these embryos can be used for future attempts. Frozen embryos can be stored for five years, which can be extended to 10 years if the couple agrees.
After five years, the authors write, 1,344 embryos from 359 couples remained in storage. By the end of 1998, nearly half (177 of 359) of these couples had not responded to the clinics' efforts, including two recorded delivery letters, to contact them. Of the 182 couples who did respond, only 70 asked for the storage time to be extended - the proportion was much higher at the NHS clinic than at the private one.
Fifty-nine couples agreed to donate their embryos to other couples or to research, but 53 instructed doctors to destroy them. In total, 67% had to be destroyed.
"What are the reasons for this huge waste of long term cryopreserved embryos?" the authors ask. They speculate that cost could be a factor, because significantly more of the couples who did not answer letters were treated in the private clinic. Those who had succeeded in having a baby were more likely to want to keep their embryos for a further attempt than those who had failed.
Abortions Or Fertility Clinics Which Kill More?
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