Printed from: https://www.cmf.org.uk/advocacy/pressrelease/?id=13
Published: 11th October 2002
This new technology is great news for women, who are undergoing cancer treatments that could damage their fertility; and raises significantly their chances of having children after life-saving chemotherapy or radiotherapy. It may also save women with infertility from blocked fallopian tubes having to undergo repeated egg-harvesting procedures.
From an ethical point of view it is also infinitely better than other fertility techniques involving egg donation or producing human embryos that are later frozen, used for research or disposed of. Embryos are human beings worthy of the utmost respect. Eggs are not; and provided the technology is proved safe, and doesn't lead to a higher rate of deformity in offspring as embryo freezing has, it will be a good advance. If you can freeze eggs there is no reason to freeze embryos.
But it is also open to abuse. If women are tempted, in order to further their careers, to freeze their eggs simply in order to postpone childbearing to later life that will not be in the best interests of their children. And there are nightmare scenarios too with geriatric mothers claiming the right have children as life-style accessories and frozen eggs being passed around the generations. This must be firmly resisted. The new technology should be reserved for those with genuine medical reasons for being unable to have children; and not abused by those who wish to postpone childbearing in their own, rather than their children's, interests.
The HFE Act opened a Pandora's box of nightmare scenarios in 1991 when it enabled egg donation and embryo freezing, experimentation and destruction. We are still reaping the whirlwind of that decision which has led to cloning, embryo selection, designer babies, geriatric mothers and the embryo mix-ups that have resulted in black babies being born to white parents. This new advance is a further nail in the coffin for those who argue that egg donation and the abuse of human embryos through freezing, experimentation and disposal are necessary to treat infertility.
Rather than opening the floodgates to Frankenstein scenarios by adopting the HFE Act the government could have helped childless couples far more by doing something to reduce the appalling tide of 180,000 abortions a year in England and Wales (thereby encouraging adoption) and by seeking treatments for infertility, like this latest advance, which respect both the human embryo and the integrity of marriage.
This new advance is a step back in the right direction but it does not go far enough. The government should urgently review the HFE Act in the light of this new advance and the high-profile fertility treatment fiascos that are increasingly filling our airwaves and television screens.
Steven Fouch (CMF Head of Communications) 020 7234 9668
Alistair Thompson on 07970 162 225
Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) was founded in 1949 and is an interdenominational organisation with over 5,000 doctors, 900medical and nursing students and 300 nurses and midwives as members in all branches of medicine, nursing and midwifery. A registered charity, it is linked to over 100 similar bodies in other countries throughout the world.
CMF exists to unite Christian healthcare professionals to pursue the highest ethical standards in Christian and professional life and to increase faith in Christ and acceptance of his ethical teaching.
