Yuan points out that embryo donation is extremely important to improve knowledge of in vitro fertilization. Embryos are used to train young embryologists to take small genetic samples, so they can be tested for certain diseases. Yuan is also using the donated embryos to find ways to improve the culture medium in which the embryos are grown outside the patient’s body, in order to increase the chances of implantation in the uterus. Yuan’s hope is that improving the way embryos are grown outside the body will increase the chances of a stable pregnancy.
The role of anti-abortion movements
Since the United States has no federal laws protecting it, embryo research could become the next target of anti-abortion campaigns. Any movement against human embryo research could also end up affecting in vitro fertilization, which involves discarding excess healthy embryos. Look at theLouisiana example it might be useful to understand how this could happen. In the state, the destruction of suitable embryos is prohibited, which means that frozen embryos that are not used must be stored indefinitely. When Hurricane Katrina hit the state in 2005, about 1,200 frozen embryos were rescued from a flooded New Orleans hospital. Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford University, argues that other states may introduce laws regulating embryos in vitro.
One factor that could make the introduction of similar laws less likely, however, is the fact that for the time being IVF and practice-related research they have not been the center of attention of the movements pro lifethat is, opposed to abortion: “Most of the pro-life movement is concerned with babies, or fetuses that look like babies“explains Greely. An embryo used for research is usually discarded within 14 days of fertilization, before the early stages of development of the brain, spinal cord or heart begin.
Greely adds that there is also another problem with embryo research. In the early 2000s, human embryonic stem cells were seen as a potential source of therapy for many diseases, including diabetes. Although the research is still ongoing, at the moment the study of embryonic stem cells has not yet produced meaningful therapies. Outside of scientific organizations and some groups dealing with specific diseases, there aren’t many people fighting to defend human embryo research.
Yuan argues that if further limits were to be imposed on this type of research, it would be mostly people who undergo in vitro fertilization that would lose out. Yuan points out that in countries like Japan, IVF is responsible for the 7 percent of new births, a fact that suggests that the practice can play a much more important role also for births in the United States. This means it will be More research is needed to increase the success rates of the practice and, consequently, an increase in embryo donations: “Access to these materials – the generosity of our patients – plays a very important role“explains Yuan.
But with the annulment of the right to abortion in the United States, the future of research of Yuan – as well as access to the embryos needed to carry it forward – it is far from guaranteed: “Most places are not in immediate risk for the next six weeks or the next year – adds Yuan -. But let’s talk about the next five or ten years. What will happen?“.
