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Twelve-year old IVF newborn

JERUSALEM, February 5, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An Israeli woman has given birth to the world's "oldest" in vitro twins. The embryos had been in frozen storage for 12 years and the woman already has two children from the same batch." The implication is that the length of time that embryos are frozen is not crucial and probably there is no more damage happening during the many years they are frozen," said her doctor, Ariel Revel of the Hadassah Hospital. It is thought that the previous record was seven years.

In the process of in vitro fertilization, one of many different techniques of artificial procreation, embryos may be created in a glass dish by mixing the oocytes and sperm either of the clients, of one client and a "donor" or of two people who are no genetic relation to the client. Invariably, more embryos are created in this process than are wanted by the client and the remaining "spare" children are either discarded or are frozen in liquid nitrogen for later "use".

Hundreds of thousands of children are in frozen "limbo" with no one willing to decide their fate. Debate is ongoing worldwide as to what to do with these "spare embryos" with many researchers lobbying for their use in experimentation in stem cell research. Some Christian groups exist to adopt these children into loving families. The average success rate, however, for artificial implantation is less than 20%. Most frozen embryos are destined to die.

There is a growing body of evidence that in vitro fertilization techniques significantly increase the risk of problem pregnancy and genetic abnormalities and the problems increase with the use of embryos that have been frozen.

A US study discovered as much as 30% increase of the loss of pregnancy for women who have frozen embryos implanted than those who use "fresh" embryos. The study found much higher rates of potentially deadly ectopic pregnancy with the use of frozen embryos.

Other studies with animals have found significant differences in behaviour between mice grown from lab-cultured embryos compared to those conceived and born normally.

In Britain, embryos are stored for five years and are then discarded. A spokesman for The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said that, "in exceptional circumstances you can extend longer than 10 years, but to do that two doctors need to confirm that the couple have or will become prematurely infertile."

BBC news coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3459515.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3193254.stm

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