Dead before birth?

 
Published: Saturday 31 August 1996

-- an unusual controversy has enveloped the whole of Europe. The issue in question is the decision of the uk government to abide by the law and destroy some 3,000 frozen embryos. A 1990 British law lays down that frozen embryos, which are used in in vitro fertilisation must be destroyed after five years unless the donors give consent to future storage. British human and fertilisation embryology authorities have spent several months trying to locate the donors but have not met with success. Fertility clinics, while not wanting to go ahead with the destruction, have begun destroying the embryos since the first of August.

The decision sparked off a wave of criticism across Europe. The reaction of the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano in Italy, was predictable: "This is a pre-natal massacre, not only tolerated but programmed and ordered by... civil legislatures". Elsewhere, test-tube baby clinics, pro-life campaigners and infertile women have said that the embryos should be allowed to develop into babies and then put up for adoption.

All over the world, it is estimated that the world's clinics are storing up to 500,000 embryos and that the numbers are increasing by 50,000 a year.

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