Anger at aborted eggs IVF plan
The technique could end a shortage of eggs, researchers say.
MADRID, Spain -- Aborted fetuses could be used in fertility treatment to
overcome the shortage in human eggs, scientists say.
The announcement was met with horror by pro-life groups who said it raised
moral and ethical issues.
The research, carried out by Israeli and Dutch scientists, was revealed at
the annual European Society of Human Fertilization and Embryology in Madrid,
Monday.
Such a treatment would relieve a worldwide shortage of human eggs for
fertility treatments, the researchers said.
Women are born with a finite number of eggs that diminish over time. For
older women who want to have a child, an egg donated from a younger woman
may be her only chance of success. But demand for donated eggs exceeds
supply.
Researchers in Israel said they have removed ovarian tissue, from aborted
fetuses, which could mature into eggs that could be used in in-vitro
fertilization (IVF) treatments.
"I am fully aware of the controversy about this, but most probably, in some
place it would be ethically acceptable," Dr Tal Biron-Shental, of the Meir
Hospital-Sapir Medical Center in Kfar Saba in Israel, told a European
fertility conference.
"There is a shortage of donated oocytes (eggs) for IVF, oocytes from aborted
fetuses may provide a new source for these," she added.
Scientists grew tissue containing immature eggs from seven fetuses aborted
between 22 and 33 weeks of gestation.
The researchers removed ovary samples and froze them immediately. They later
thawed them and cut them into thin slices before placing them in a dish of
growth-enhancing chemicals and calf blood for four weeks.
The scientists concluded, based on an elevation of estradiol -- a form of
estrogen -- in the fourth week, that some of the follicles had progressed
from the resting state to the growing stage.
About 70 baby mice have been born using the technique.
Work was carried out in collaboration with scientists from Utrecht
University in the Netherlands.
Some scientists cast doubt on the experiments, though some envisaged the
possibility of using it for women undergoing cancer treatment who want to
restore their fertility at a later date.
Dr. Johan Smitz, a professor of endocrine physiology at the Free University
of Brussels in Belgium -- who was not involved in the research -- said the
main problem with using the technique as a source of eggs for fertility
treatments is that the fetus cannot consent to the use of her eggs.
Roger Gosden, scientific director of the Jones Institute fro Reproductive
Medicine in Norfolk, Virginia, said aborted fetuses would be an impractical
source of eggs for fertility treatment.
"I don't think we need it because we can obtain biopsies of ovaries from
women. From that material, you can get the proper consent, you can get
material which perhaps does not have as many eggs as fetal tissue, but it
has much more potential," said Gosden, who was not connected with the
research.
But the British anti-abortion group Life was reported by Reuters as
describing the research as grotesque and said most people would repulsed by
the idea.
