Reports emerging from a survey carried out in Washington DC, USA have indicated that nearly all vitro fertilisation clinics in America create more embryos than they will implant in a woman’s womb. In addition to this more than 80% are willing to destroy those embryos.

The survey was conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers University, and it found that 210 out of 217 IVF clinics that responded to a questionnaire create embryos. It also found that:

-- All the clinics were willing to cryopreserve, or freeze, extra embryos, but 96 percent charged a fee.

-- 123 clinics (59 percent) were willing not to create extra embryos if requested.

-- 158 clinics (76 percent) would donate embryos to other couples seeking to reproduce.

-- 124 clinics (60 percent) were willing to donate embryos for research, which would result in their destruction.

-- 175 clinics (84 percent) disposed of (or, destroyed) extra embryos. Of these, 78 percent required permission from both members of a couple before disposing of them.

-- Of the 175 clinics practicing disposal, 94 percent did so by treating the embryos as biological waste.

Bioethicist, C. Ben Mitchell, an assistant professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in suburban Chicago said, “Do not create any extra embryos, embryos belong in uteruses. When we depart from that basic axiom, trouble is bound to follow.”

He continued, “Couples and not the fertility industry must dictate how we care for our youngest offspring.”

“Couples can control this situation if they are well informed, faithful to the basic axiom that embryos belong in the uterus and courageous,” said Mitchell, who also serves as a consultant for the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “If they choose to use IVF, they should never allow the creation of more embryos than they are willing to have implanted. If couples find it impossible to say, ‘No,’ embryos will be killed.”

Mitchell also commented on how the situation could create a potential quagmire for desperate couples wanting children: “In the meantime, some couples may choose, as a means of rescue, to adopt the embryos that are in fertility clinics around the country. Those who are not adopted after a reasonable amount of time should be given a decent burial, and this tragedy should never be repeated.”

Approximately 400,000 embryos are preserved in storage for the United States. The questionnaires were the first of their kind according to the Penn-Rutgers researchers.