Posted on 01/02/2008 3:51:06 PM PST by wagglebee
LONDON, January 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Following a UK Parliamentary question, data from a government organization showed that over one million human embryonic children were killed in the UK in the past 14 years as 'waste' embryos from in vitro fertilization (IVF) processes.
The acquired data showed that 2,137,924 embryonic humans were created using IVF between 1991 and 2005, but about 1.2m were never used. Scientists killed the embryos who were not deemed strong enough for implantation, and froze those not considered 'waste' embryos. Those that survived the freezing process will die in ten years if not implanted.
'Surplus' embryos were created because women responded differently to fertility drugs, doctors told the Times Online. As many as 40 IVF-fertilized eggs can be used in some treatments. The embryos are then assessed for viability, with only about 20% usually considered strong enough to implant successfully in a woman.
Lord Alton of Liverpool, an independent peer noted for his stance against abortion, tabled the question to parliament and obtained the statistics from the Department of Health. He said that embryos were being created and destroyed at "an incredible rate," and advocates embryonic adoption for those embryos that aren't used for implantation in IVF.
"IVF has ensured that a number of people have been given a chance to have children. But it is surprising how many embryos are being destroyed in the process," he said. "This is a rather unexpected aspect of IVF. If you could just create an embryo to implant, that would be fine. I think it would be much better if these embryos that are going to be destroyed were used for infertile couples. At least they would have a chance of life. The number of embryos used is expanding year after year."
Embryo adoption is legally permitted in the UK and United States, but is rare in both countries. Advocates of the process are also calling for the embryonic children to be given up for adoption, where all of them will be frozen and all the survivors used for infertility treatment, provided volunteers with the necessary money can be found within the ten year period.
"Lots of people do have surplus embryos and if people could think about donating embryos it would be wonderful," said a spokesman for Infertility Network UK. "Embryo donation is a much bigger thing in America; it is like adoption. It would be good thing to explore further."
In America, the Snowflakes charity arranges the adoption of embryos by couples who want children. This has, however, led to the birth of only 157 babies in the past 10 years.
The Los Angeles-based Snowflakes charity said it does not "discriminate" between embryos judged to be healthy or unhealthy and added that embryos it has used, which doctors had judged not to be viable, have still produced healthy babies.
The number of pregnancies that have occurred through embryo adoption remains low in the U.S. and the UK due to its high cost and controversial nature. To avoid twin and triplet pregnancies, embryo adoption agencies attempt to implant one and two embryos at a time, an expensive process that usually needs to be done multiple times before a frozen embryo survives in the womb of the adoptive mother.
Last month the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the regulator of IVF practice in the UK, called for a reduction of twin pregnancies in IVF, leading scientists and doctors to look for IVF methods that will use fewer embryos. The authority wants to see many women offered just one fertilised embryo, a step which would minimize the chances of a twin birth and would reduce the number of embryonic children being created and destroyed a few days later.
See LifeSiteNews Special Report on IVF:
http://www.lifesite.net/features/invitro/
See Previous LifeSiteNews Coverage:
Adoptive Parents of Girl Frozen as Embryo Battle Embryonic Stem Cell Research
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/07041908.html
Canadian IVF Researchers Admit 80-90% of IVF-Created Human Embryos Doomed to Die
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/nov/03112601.html
VATICAN SOLUTION TO LEFT OVER EMBRYO DILEMMA IS LITTLE KNOWN
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/dec/02120401.html
ABOUT 170,000 IVF EMBRYO DEATHS PER YEAR IN U.S.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/nov/02112202.html
to all you puritions, I am handicap with a disease and happy to be here today. Would you like to retract your rudeness?
I apologize for being insensitive to your handicaps; however, this DOES NOT excuse your pro-death stance.
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You have no kindness in your heart for the living who do not get enought food and you want to bring more mouths to the table that cannot be fed and will starve to death.. Sick
As I have already stated, this is the same rhetoric that the left has been using to advance socialism for well over a century.
Please find me ANY EVIDENCE of people starving in the United States.
Hunger worldwide NEVER HAS and NEVER WILL have anything to do with food shortages, it has always been the result of failed economic and political policies.
Link?
ANY link that could be provided would be straight from some leftist group. Even most of the DUmmies aren't dumb enough to believe this nonsense.
I’m giving 20 to 1 odds that there will be no link. Any takers? :)
CHICAGOFARMER is just making up stuff as s/he goes along.
I don’t think it would be too difficult to find a link, but it would be from some communist group and Peter Singer or someone of his ilk would be cited as the “expert.”
“but it would be from some communist group and Peter Singer or someone of his ilk would be cited as the “expert.”’
Another reason why s/he won’t post a link, so I’ll stick to my 20 to 1 odds. :)
It’s rather ironic that CHICAGOFARMER’s FReeper homepage talks a lot about the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The totality of the Founding Fathers’ work, for which many of them risked and pledged “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor,” was that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are gifts from God that CANNOT BE JUSTLY TAKEN FROM US. This is all VERY DIFFERENT from the attitude that some don’t deserve to eat and none deserve to be born.
“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are gifts from God that CANNOT BE JUSTLY TAKEN FROM US.”
“LIFE, liberty..”
Guess s/he overlooked LIFE.
You have no kindness in your heart for the living who do not get enought food and you want to bring more mouths to the table that cannot be fed and will starve to death.. Sick
As I have already stated, this is the same rhetoric that the left has been using to advance socialism for well over a century.
Please find me ANY EVIDENCE of people starving in the United States.
Hunger worldwide NEVER HAS and NEVER WILL have anything to do with food shortages, it has always been the result of failed economic and political policies.
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You are too far left for me. Why do we have food kitchensin USA. NO HUNGER?
I’m giving 20 to 1 odds that there will be no link. Any takers? :)
CHICAGOFARMER is just making up stuff as s/he goes along.
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Nope Chicagofarmer is a farmer. We don’t bring more cattle into our farmer than I can feed. If we did we would have starving cattle.
Link?
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Link for what? I listening.
Please provide a link to back up your posts 16 & 17.
I think you have a serious problem with projection.
Why do we have food kitchensin USA. NO HUNGER?
I never said that we didn't have people in America who need help, but we feed them, they ARE NOT starving.
Then you should realize that for decades the government has been paying farmer to LIMIT production, there are no food shortages in the United States and there never have been.
Please provide a link to back up your posts 16 & 17.
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Be glad to: 300 million in USA.
http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
I was agricultural engineer in 60’s who studied food production shortages in the world. One of my professors wrote a book called “Greening of Africa” Now it appears just a temporary shift in weather pattern.
In 1905 world population was near 2 billion.
We don’t bring more cattle into our farmer than I can feed. If we did we would have starving cattle.
Then you should realize that for decades the government has been paying farmer to LIMIT production, there are no food shortages in the United States and there never have been.
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Not enought food in USA or USA land to feed all the 6.6 billion people in world like we eat. what are you going to give up?
We don’t bring more cattle into our farmer than I can feed. If we did we would have starving cattle.
Then you should realize that for decades the government has been paying farmer to LIMIT production, there are no food shortages in the United States and there never have been.
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The real reason US govt keeps cheap food in USA? Do you real want to know?
We're not going to give ANYTHING up, only leftists like you propose making "sacrifices" when there isn't even a problem.
The fact that the population is growing worldwide DOES NOT mean that there is a food shortage. Nobody is disputing that there are more people today than there were a century ago, what you are being asked to provide evidence of is a food shortage.
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