Doctor's fertilization tests cause stir, Japan

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 08 Nov 2004 - 14:00 PDT

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A Kobe doctor has caused a stir in the medical field over his ethically questionable practice of examining fertilized eggs for viability and possible genetic disorders before implantation, even after being expelled from the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology in April for doing so without the society's approval.

Although experts are concerned that the fertilization technique could lead to discriminating between lives, it is questionable whether a ban could be imposed without further discussion.

Tetsuo Otani, who operates a maternity clinic in Kobe, said Friday he had conducted the procedure on 16 couples who suffered from habitual miscarriages or other problems. Some of the couples were worried that their inability to have a successful pregnancy was due to chromosome abnormalities.

Out of the 16 couples, Otani implanted fertilized eggs in the wombs of 15 women and recently discovered that five of the women in their 20s and 30s were pregnant. One of the 16 couples had been referred to Otani by Yahiro Netsu, a director of Suwa Maternity Clinic in Nagano Prefecture, who in the past violated the society's regulations concerning surrogate mothers. The couple's egg has been tested, but has not been implanted yet.

"If the patient is able to undergo the operation, I'll return the fertilized egg to the womb. I know that this would be equivalent to testing a fertilized egg before it has been implanted and would thus violate the society's guidelines," Netsu said.

Otani said, "If other doctors asked me to conduct such tests, I would do so."

According to the society's guidelines, such procedures can only be conducted when there is a risk of transmitting serious hereditary diseases. The guidelines also stipulate that each application for the procedure should be screened by the society, which in July approved its first case, that of a couple in which the wife carries the gene for Duchenne muscular dystrophy…………. CONTINUES…………….www.yomiuri.co.jp

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