New Service Allows IVF Couples To Use Surplus Embryos For Creation Of Stem Cell Lines

Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 18 Oct 2007 - 10:00 PST

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California-based StemLifeLine on Monday at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., presented a pilot study of its service in which couples who have undergone in vitro fertilization pay for stem cell lines to be created from surplus embryos, London's Guardian reports.

For the study, StemLifeLine physicians asked 17 couples from the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine to donate three-day-old frozen embryos to the center's bank. The doctors created nine stem cell lines from 45 donated embryos. StemLifeLine CEO Ana Krtolica said, "We can now offer IVF patients the option to derive and preserve their own stem cell line for their future use." According to the Guardian, it costs about 8,500 pounds, or $17,000, to have the cells from the embryos collected and stored for 20 years (Sample, Guardian, 10/16).

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Lord Robert Winston, a fertility expert and chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, said, "It's a clear example of the exploitation of the worries of a couple about the fate of their children," adding, "There is no scientific evidence to sustain the notion this will be a useful procedure" (Moss, Scotsman, 10/16). Stephen Minger, a professor and stem cell expert at King's College-London, said, "My worry is that this is a commercial service that is being promoted to companies when the science is really not there to justify it." He added, "It is like trying to run before you can walk, and the fact it is being done for commercial purposes makes it worse" (BBC News, 10/15).

John Paul Maytum of the United Kingdom's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said a British company would not be allowed to use embryos to create stem cells if there were no specific purpose for their use, adding, "It is very difficult to see how that would pass the 'necessary and desirable' test for the use of human embryos" (Guardian, 10/16).

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