There is an article in the Daily Mail today reporting on the incidence of abortion for Down’s syndrome in IVF pregnancies. Statistics show that in 2009, the most recent year for which figures are available, a total of 127 abortions were carried out on babies […]
A new IVF milestone
Thirty-four years after the first test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in 1978 it is estimated that around five million babies have now been born, worldwide, using IVF. The five million figure is based on official figures up to 2008, plus three years of […]
Embryos, adoption and anonymous fathers
Adoption is often recommended as an alternative to IVF and the creation of spare embryos that are then destroyed. In the US the adoption of embryos is a further well-publicised alternative to destroying ‘spare’ embryos left after fertility treatment. Whilst adoption (including embryo adoption) is […]
It’s not just about the adults…children have feelings too
It has emerged over the weekend that an owner of a UK sperm bank may have biologically fathered up to 600 children. One of his biological children has suggested the number may even be as high as one thousand children! Bertold Wiesner ran a controversial […]
Egg donation mania – probing beneath the journalistic hype
There are two stories about egg donation in the papers this week. First is the HFEA’s drive to recruit sperm and egg donors. Apparently it is bringing together a National Donation Strategy Group to look at how to ‘raise awareness’. The BBC gives an […]