A recent study at Duke University Medical Centre shows that couples with left over embryos after IVF treatments prefer to donate their embryos to stem cell research instead of giving them a chance to become babies. The study showed that 41% of patients who had excess embryos after the completion of their fertility treatment would seriously consider donating their embryos for stem cell research. Twelve percent of patients preferred to discard the embryos but when asked only 16% said they would be willing to donate their left over embryos to another couple even though it would be the only option that would avoid destroying them.
"The national debate presumes that if you care about and respect a human embryo, you would want that embryo to have a chance at life," said Dr. Anne Drapkin Lyerly, a Duke obstetrician and ethicist who led the study. "What we found was that people cared very much about what happened to their embryos, but one of their significant concerns was that their embryos not become children in families other than their own."
Dr. Anne Drapkin Lyerly conducted the study by surveying about 1,000 couples who had frozen embryos in storage at nine fertility clinics across the country, including one at Duke.
One of the study's participants, Jacqueline Betancourt, said that "donating her embryos for research seemed like the only way to avoid wasting their potential".
"The thought of throwing an embryo away just isn't a pleasant thought," Betancourt said. "It seemed wrong ... Given all the developments you hear about with stem cell research, it felt like that truly was a potential good for society."
Betancourt already had two children she had conceived through in vitro fertilization and had no problem with donating her excess embryos to research rationalizing that at that stage they are just a group of cells.
There are many couples in the US who can't decide what they want to do with their embryos. They don't want them to be destroyed but also don't want to give someone else their baby so their embryos are often left frozen in IVF clinics for years along with all their potential for cures.
These embryos are particularly special because embryonic stem cells have the ability to become almost any of the different cells in the human body and provide hope for cures of many diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Since it was first tried 1998 the idea of using human embryos for medical research has lead to a great deal controversy.
Now though even if a couple had decided to donate their embryos many don't have the option offered to them. As of now there is not enough funding available to fully research the embryonic stem cell. So until there is enough funding available the hundreds of thousands of available embryos serve little use.
Lyerly said that another discovery in the study is that many couples never have conversations with their doctors about the possibilities for their embryos. Most couple are only given three option : use them for treatment, destroy them or continue to store them forever.
I think that this study show a good insight to what people going through the IVF process are thinking. It seems silly if they have to purpose left with the embryos not to donate them to research. Especially those who make the decision to discard the rather than to donate them to research. It doesn't make any sense, if the embryos are going to be destroyed anyway then why no donate them to a cause that could potentially save lives. I do understand though people not wanting to destroy their embryos and also not wanting to give them to another couple and they have to right to feel that way and to hold on to their embryos as long as they want to. It is just a shame that cures to thousands of diseases could be stored right now in fertility clinic destined to be frozen forever.
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