IVF CHILDREN SUFFER DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS

ST LEONARDS, Australia, May 28 (LSN) – On Saturday, the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet reported on an Australian study showing a certain in vitro fertilization (IVF) technique is linked to developmental delays in children conceived in such a manner. Dr. Jennifer Bowen and her colleagues at the Royal North Shore Hospital in St. Leonards, Australia, studied about 250 children—some conceived naturally, and some conceived artificially by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a procedure which is meant to weed out abnormal sperm and select healthy sperm for injection.  In March, USA Today reported that at a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, experts in the field noted that ICSI is suspected of causing infertility, and increasing the chances of cystic fibrosis and cancer, in children conceived by the 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 indicating IVF also increases the odds of this particular aberration was presented at a UK medical conference late last year.