Free Republic

LONDON: Frozen embryos are better than fresh when it comes to producing healthier babies using in-vitro fertilisation, a new study has revealed. Researchers in Denmark have found that babies born from thawed embryos were heavier at birth and were unlikely to suffer abnormalities as compared to those born from fresh embryos. “Only very top-quality embryos survive the freezing and thawing process. And you only get pregnancies in patients with lots of good embryos to freeze,” lead researcher Dr Anja Pinborg was quoted by The Daily Telegraph as saying. The researchers at Copenhagen University reached the conclusion after comparing over...

Four cups of coffee a day seriously damage a woman’s chances of having a baby, research suggests. The effect is almost as bad as the problems in pregnancy caused by alcohol, smoking or being overweight, a fertility conference heard. Women drinking that much caffeine were 26 per cent less likely to have a baby — adding to evidence that it can harm fertility and the health of an unborn baby. Earlier this year, it was claimed that just two cups of coffee a day could double the risk of miscarriage. Coffee has also been found to increase the risk of...

"When you're told that it will be impossible to have your partner's children, it feels like a bereavement. True, it's only the death of a fantasy – the fantasy that you and the love of your life might be able to produce a human being who's an endearing amalgamation of both your imperfections – but by the time you find out, you'll often have been trying for at least a year to make that fantasy flesh, and its loss feels substantial. So the decision to search for a sperm or egg donor is a difficult and emotional one from the...

Advances in reproductive technology have proven to be a blessing to many a couple suffering with infertility. Thanks to these advances, couples, who in the past would have been unable to have children, now happily bounce them on their knees. However, as thrilling as these new technologies can be, their application can be fraught with moral hazard. Ethical lapses can be avoided by thinking clearly about the principles that ought to inform our decision making in this area. Principles of Human Dignity Let's begin by reflecting on the right to life. The first principle that ought to guide our thinking...

Part one of this series discussed natural family planning (NFP) as a means of treating infertility and introduced readers to the basics of artificial reproductive technologies (ART). Parts two and three explained the Church's teaching on human sexuality, with special attention paid to the link between infertility treatments and the contraceptive mentality. A Response to Readers clarified the Church's teaching on the use of Intrauterine Insemination (IUI). Here, we enter into the heart of the mystery of infertility. If, as the Church teaches, children are the "supreme gift" of marriage, how are couples (like us) to understand their infertility as a...

While natural family planning (NFP) is not always effective for couples (like us) who are trying to conceive naturally (see part one of this series), the Church has good reasons for its teaching on human sexuality (see part two and our "Response to Readers"). Nevertheless, many couples believe they can use intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) without violating their consciences or their faith, because, after all, such techniques create life, not destroy it.Flirting with DangerProponents of artificial reproductive technologies (ART) often argue that IUI and IVF are actually "pro-life." The thinking behind this assertion is that every...

As we saw in part one of this series, couples who have learned to chart effectively have a 76 percent chance of conceiving during their first cycle of use and a 98 percent pregnancy rate by their sixth cycle. Still, even if natural family planning (NFP) does not work for everyone (us included), artificial reproductive technologies (ART), such as intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF), are contrary to the Church's teaching on human sexuality. Not only do IUI and IVF frustrate the unitive aspect of lovemaking, they violate the baby's right to be conceived through a person-to-person, body-to-body...

Having struggled with infertility for nearly six years, we know the pain of not being able to have a baby. We're also familiar with the awkward silences — and tears — that often accompany conversations with those who have never experienced infertility. On the one hand, people tend to believe fertility is something we have perfect control over. "Just relax," we've been told. "When you settle down, I'm sure it will happen." Or, "Maybe you're just not ready yet," as if "buying a house" or "getting a better job" would make us pregnant. On the other hand, it's a...

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- The Associated Press was quick to seize on a story Thursday that wrongly claims the dangerous abortion drug RU 486 poses no medical risks for women. However, the international news service went further by writing a biased news article claiming abortions do not cause future infertility or sterility problems. In his article, "Study Finds No Risk from Abortion Pills" AP reporter Mike Stobbe claims "previous research has shown surgical abortions don't increase the risk of problems in later pregnancies."Yet research shows that abortion can lead to infertility by increasing the risk of miscarriages.A 1986 report...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study conducted in Denmark found that the sperm count of men who are conceived by fertility treatments is up to 50 percent lower than normal.Published in March 1 by the American Journal of Epidemiology (AJE), the study was entitled, "The Fertility Treatment and Reproductive Health of Male Offspring: A Study of 1,925 Young Men from the General Population." The AJE explains that all 1,925 Danish participants were undergoing compulsory medical testing at the time for army fitness requirements. The volunteers were required to give both a semen sample and a blood sample...

Two Sets in the U.S. Are Born on the Same Day - It is a rare event in the United States, indeed in the world -- the birth of sextuplets. Out of more than 4 million births in the U.S. in 2005, just 85 deliveries involved five or more babies. Making the occasion rarer recently was the birth of two sets of sextuplets just 10 hours apart.On June 12, Ryan and Brianna Morrison of Minnesota became parents of four boys and two girls, born after just 22 weeks in their mother's womb. And in Phoenix that same day, after just...

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, June 12, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Minnesota couple welcomed the birth of all six of their sextuplets at St. Luke’s Hospital in Minneapolis yesterday,although the couple’s and their childrens’ story would have been far different if doctors had their way. "The babies arrived sooner than we'd hoped for, but we are optimistic," father Ryan Morrison said in a statement. "Brianna is doing well. Thanks to all who are praying for our family. We are very happy to be parents." After 22 weeks, Brianna Morrison gave birth to four boys and two girls just before midnight Sunday. All six...

Glenn Sacks Discusses the Texas Frozen Embryo Case on the Nationally-Syndicated Mike McConnell Show (Audio Available) Fathers' rights advocate Glenn Sacks discussed the controversial Texas frozen embryo case on the nationally-syndicated Mike McConnell Show yesterday. The case involves Augusta Roman and her ex-husband Randy Roman, who during their marriage tried for several years to have a child (and had one miscarriage) before undergoing infertility treatments. The day before the embryos were to be implanted, Randy told her that he was troubled by certain aspects of their relationship and wanted to wait to implant the embryos until they had resolved their...

Samantha Carolan was 23 and fresh out of graduate school when she decided to donate eggs to an infertile couple. Ms. Carolan concedes that she would never have done it if not for the money, $7,000 that she used to pay off some student loans. She has since had a second egg extraction, for which she was paid $8,000, and she is planning a third before taking a break. “The first time, it’s frightening,” said Ms. Carolan, now 24, of Winfield Park, N.J. “It is surgery, and I don’t think I would have done it without compensation. But I had...

New research has examined the usefulness of bone marrow stem cells for treating male infertility, with promising results. The related report by Lue et al, “Fate of bone marrow stem cells transplanted into the testis: potential implication for men with testicular failure,” appears in the March issue of The American Journal of Pathology. When a couple experiences infertility, the man is just as likely as the woman to be the cause. Male infertility may arise from failed proliferation and differentiation of the germ cells (precursors of sperm) or from dysfunction of the supporting cells. New research is looking to stem...

Infertility - not assimilation or inadequate education - is perhaps the biggest obstacle to Jewish continuity, suggests Rabbi Elliot Dorff, rector and professor of philosophy at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles.  “We are in a great demographic crisis,” says the Conservative rabbi, an expert in medical ethics. “We Jews are not even reproducing ourselves, let alone growing.”  Dorff understands how much education is required to take somebody born Jewish and transform that person into someone who knows a lot about Judaism and practices it. “But you can't educate someone who is not there,” he said in a phone...

Boy or girl? Almost half of U.S. fertility clinics that offer embryo screening say they allow couples to choose the sex of their child, the most extensive survey of the practice suggests. Sex selection without any medical reason to warrant it was performed in about 9 percent of all embryo screenings last year, the survey found. Another controversial procedure - helping parents conceive a child who could supply compatible cord blood to treat an older sibling with a grave illness - was offered by 23 percent of clinics, although only 1 percent of screenings were for that purpose in 2005....

Infertile couples desperate to conceive children are turning increasingly to fertility specialists for help. Yet, widespread use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has led to a completely unforeseen consequence: the creation of the world’s largest population of frozen human embryos. That reality has ignited a vigorous moral debate among scientists, politicians, theologians, and parents about what should be done with the surplus store of nascent human life.The challenge for pro-life evangelicals is to develop systematic moral reasoning that can be applied to a range of issues including embryo adoption, human embryonic stem cell research, ART, “therapeutic cloning,” genetic engineering,...

Infertile couples sometimes resort to IVF in order to conceive a child. IVF is a laboratory technique by which human embryos are conceived in a petri dish which contains a culture medium. The woman is given hormones which stimulate her ovaries to produce up to 30 or more oocyte (ova). These are retrieved by inserting a needle into the ovaries via the vagina with ultrasound guidance. These oocyte are mixed with sperm. The sperm is obtained by masturbation and is usually donated by the husband. If the husband is infertile however, the sperm may be obtained from another man. If...

Womb transplants in humans should be possible within five years, say scientists in Sweden ... The procedure would allow women who have functioning ovaries but no womb to carry their own children, and the researchers say they have already been contacted by hundreds of women who are interested in having such a transplant. There are several reasons why a woman can lack a uterus. Some, with a condition called Rokitansky syndrome, are born without a vagina or a uterus. Others can lose their womb, for example through cervical cancer, or if the organ ruptures during childbirth. The only current way...