Angela Carter once said that "paternal parentage is often clouded in a way that maternity is not." She was talking about Wise Children, her novel concerned with the slippery, unknowable nature of paternity.

The essential mechanics of reproduction have always put women at an advantage in any question over parentage. We know the truth, whatever it may be, about our offspring; men just have to take our word for it. But in the time since Wise Children was published, this imbalance has shifted. For some women, the idea of maternity is suddenly not so assured.

Last month, Carolyn Savage from Ohio handed over her baby to its biological parents. She had been implanted with the wrong embryo after a mix-up at a fertility clinic. This came after a number of other IVF errors. In June, a couple from Cardiff were told that their last remaining frozen embryo had been mistakenly implanted in another woman, who had since had it aborted. In the same month, it was revealed that a white Northern Irish couple had given birth to a mixed-race baby, after being given the wrong sperm. And the instances go on. A Californian woman was awarded $1m in 2004 after a fertility specialist gave her the wrong embryo and hid the mistake until the baby was 10 months old. A white New Yorker gave birth to a black baby in 1998, sparking a complex, two-year legal wrangle between the two couples for visitation rights.

In vitro fertilisation is a booming industry. Around 12,500 babies a year are born in the UK as a result of IVF. More than 36,000 women a year attend the UK's 136 clinics for treatment. That's a lot of embryos in a lot of petri dishes in a lot of freezers. You can see how the occasional mistake happens: all it would take is a technician's moment of inattention, the phone ringing, a colleague asking a question, and – just like that – the wrong petri dish is plucked from the shelf and a terrible, private tragedy is set in motion.

The number of cases which come to light is small but it begs the question: just how many of these slip-ups go undetected? ...

One fertility counsellor – who does not want to be named – says that she deals with an increasing number of people who fear that the clinic may have made a mistake. "It's an issue for a lot of couples, particularly the women. Mothers need to be sure of that bond and it's not uncommon to experience doubt."

Labels: Artificial Reproductive Technology, gender differences, IVF, motherhood, parenting

posted by Eve at 7:59 PM EMAIL SHARE PRINT

The British government's embryo research authority has warned potential parents that children conceived artificially through in vitro fertilization have a thirty percent higher risk of genetic abnormalities.

Reports of higher levels of birth defects among IVF children have been making headlines since at least 2003, but the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has only this week issued a warning on the matter. The HFEA said that parents should be told of the risks associated with IVF, but emphasized that not all the risks are fully understood and more research is needed.

...The risk of birth defects in the general population is low. Two per cent of children in Europe are born with birth defects. Some research suggests there might be an increased risk of 30 percent for babies born as a result of ART. This would mean that the risk rises to 2.6 percent, which is still low. There is not enough data to be more precise but this is the best estimate currently available.

Research to date cannot say with absolute certainty that this increased risk is due to ART. Other causes including the original cause of infertility, the age of the patient or other unexplored factors cannot be discounted.

In order to make sure patients understand the risks of ART as well as they can we keep research of this kind under review. And where it suggests there may be a greater risk we share this information with patients in a clear way to help them understand the risks associated with the choices they are making.

However, we still do not know the complete picture. All we can say with confidence is that there is a small risk associated with ART in general.

Labels: Artificial Reproductive Technology, IVF

posted by Imapp Staff at 1:40 PM EMAIL SHARE PRINT