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Parents told to destroy their IVF embryos in Australia
– Reported,22 January 2013
Hundreds of healthy frozen embryos are being destroyed because patients are led to believe they are only viable for as little as five years. There are more than 120,000 frozen embryos in storage in Australia, but many IVF clinics ask patients to destroy them within five to 10 years. Some women who are having trouble conceiving have received letters telling them they have a limited time left to use their embryos even though doctors have successfully used 15-year-old specimens to create healthy children. IVF clinics base their requests to destroy embryos on government guidelines.
But many patients do not realise they are entitled to request that their embryos be stored longer. “They do not age and an embryo’s viability is not affected by the length of time it is frozen,” Fertility First medical director Dr Anne Clark said. Law researchers from the University of Technology, Sydney, who conducted the country’s first study into the legislation and policies surrounding IVF, are calling for a major overhaul of “complicated, intrusive and disrespectful” IVF laws and policies set by state and federal governments.
Professor Jenni Millbank, who led the research, said: “Law should not set blanket storage periods that enforce destruction of embryos after a set period. There’s no reason why an external body should be telling when embryos have to be destroyed. That should be the decision of the people who created them. People don’t understand that clinics are following guidelines rather than a hard and fast law.”
Dr Clark said her clinic in Sydney’s south wanted patients to be given the right to make their own decisions about their frozen embryos. Patients pay about $300 a year to store their embryos in special canisters frozen with liquid nitrogen.
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