Fertility treatment blueprint for the future
These activities range from assisted insemination (AI) to the more complex in vitro fertilisation (IVF) which has been in use since the 1970s.
It also takes into account more recent experimental procedures such as the creation of part-human interspecies embryos, which a group of South Koreans claimed to have achieved in 2003.
Of the 40 recommendations, all but seven were unanimously agreed by the commission’s 20 members while the remainder were majority views, some with only a single dissenter. The main recommendations are as follows.
Definition: The fertilisation of an egg in a laboratory outside the human body for subsequent implantation as an embryo in a woman.
Recommendations:
* The embryo formed by IVF should not attract legal protection until placed in the human body.
* Service providers should facilitate users who wish to avoid any treatment that might result in production of surplus embryos.
* Options for dealing with surplus embryos should include donating to other recipients, voluntary donation for research or allowing them to perish.
* A limit should be placed on the number of embryos to be transferred in any one treatment cycle to reduce the likelihood and scale of multiple pregnancies.
* The regulatory body should have the power to intervene where sperm, eggs or embryos are abandoned or where the couple disagree on a course of action, separate, or where one or both of them dies or becomes incapacitated.
Definition: Where the sperm and/or egg or the complete embryo is donated by someone other than the intended parent(s).
Recommendations:
* Medical tests and all other necessary steps must be taken in the selection of donors to ensure that donated sperm and eggs are free from the risk of transmitting disease or passing on genetic disorders.
* Donated sperm should be frozen for six months and only used after further testing to ensure it is free from diseases that may have an incubation period.
* Mixing of sperm from a donor and the recipient’s partner should be prohibited.
* Donors should not be allowed lay down conditions for the use of their sperm/eggs except where there is a donation within a family or there is a possibility of any resulting embryo being used for research.
* Donors should not be paid for their donations, except to cover expenses.
* Donors should, if they wish, be told when a child is born through use of their donation.
* Children born through donations should be entitled when they reach adulthood to know the identity of their genetic parents, but the donor should not be able to find out the identity of the child.
* All parental rights and responsibilities should rest with the recipients of the donations, not the donor.
* Limits should be set on the number of children to be born by the use of sperm or eggs from a single donor.
Definition: Where a woman carries and gives birth to a baby for another person or couple.
Recommendations:
* Surrogacy should be made legal, subject to regulation.
* The law should be changed to recognise the commissioning mother as the legal mother of the child, not the birth mother.
* The child born through surrogacy should have the right to know the identity of the surrogate mother.
* Women who act as surrogates should be entitled to receive expenses.
* There should be a “cooling off” period between a woman agreeing to be a surrogate and becoming pregnant to ensure she has time to reconsider.
Definition: Where scientific or medical examination or experimentation is carried out on embryos outside the human body for purposes.
Recommendations:
* Such research should only be permitted on surplus embryos created for and available after IVF treatment.
* The creation of IVF embryos specifically for research purposes should be prohibited.
* The research period should end 14 days after fertilisation.
* Once embryos are used for research, their subsequent use for reproductive purposes should be prohibited.
Definition: The deliberate creation of a human who is genetically identical to another
Recommendation: Should be prohibited.
Definition: Also known as therapeutic cloning or stem-cell research, it is the use of embryonic cells for medical purposes.
Recommendation: should be allowed for the treatment of genetic diseases but with the stipulation that only surplus IVF embryos should be used.
Definition: The deliberate manipulation of sperm to ensure the resulting baby is the desired gender.
Recommendation:
* Should only be allowed for the prevention of serious, gender-linked genetic diseases.
* Should be prohibited for “family balancing” purposes where couples simply desire a particular sex for reasons of personal taste.
Definition: The examination of embryos intended for implantation in IVF procedures to weed out those with genetic defects.
Recommendation: Should be allowed but only under licence and to reduce the risk of serious genetic disorders in any resulting child.
Definition: The generation of embryos using human material and material from an animal.
Recommendation:
* Should be banned.
Other recommendations:
A statutory regulatory body should be set up to licence, regulate, censure and impose standards on all clinics and labs providing assisted reproduction and embryo research services.
Professional counselling should be provided to all parties involved in an assisted reproduction procedure before, during and after the procedure. Particular attention should be paid where multiple pregnancies result or where treatment fails.
Statistics on the success/failure rates of treatments should be recorded, compiled on a national basis and made public and the benefits and risks, including medical risks, of all procedures should be made clear.
Age limits should be set for women participating in assisted reproduction procedures. No definitive limit is laid down but it is suggested it should be broadly in line with the natural ending of fertility, ie around 45.
Exclusions from assisted reproduction should not be on the basis of gender, marital status or sexual orientation. The key criteria for exclusion should be the welfare of any resulting child.
Research should be carried out on the children resulting from assisted reproduction to establish whether they are in any way medically or socially different from naturally conceived children.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
