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Wednesday April 8, 1998


IN VITRO FERTILIZATION CAUSES GENETIC ABNORMALITIES

NEW YORK, Apr 8 (LSN) – The March 24 issue of USA Today reported yet another finding of genetic abnormalities resulting from the practice of in vitro fertilization. At a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, experts in the field noted that one of the techniques used in the IVF procedure, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), is suspected of causing infertility, and increasing the chances of cystic fibrosis and cancer, in children conceived by the method.

Apparently, the technological means of weeding out abnormal sperm and selecting healthy sperm for injection is inferior to the body’s natural method. Urologist Larry Lipshultz of Baylor College of Medicine addressed the conference, saying, “We have to ask ourselves, what are we doing? There is significant concern over the transmission of these abnormal paternal genes to the offspring.”

In January, doctors reported that a child in Scotland conceived by IVF has both male and female sex organs. Evidence was presented at a medical conference that IVF increases the odds of this particular aberration as well.


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