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Technology and Pregnancy Enhancement
79
even higher. As many as fifteen eggs may be required for a successful
implantation.13
A more widely known waste problem is that of disposing of the multiple
conceptions that regularly occur outside the woman through IVF. In the
United States all of the embryos produced in vitro are generally placed in the
uterus (which introduces the risk of a multiple pregnancy); however, the
possibility is always present that some embryos may be destroyed.
Third, the problem of waste is potentially present each time human
embryos are frozen for future disposal or use. Several recent court cases have
involved the bizarre problems of the rights of various parties to determine what
is to be done with the products of IVF which have been placed in storage.14
These various dimensions of the question of waste raise foundational
issues, such as when life begins as well as the intrinsic worth and rights of
embryos.15 Does life begin at conception? Is a human embryo to be treated
with the full respect due to a human being? And do embryos have the right
to be placed in the womb so that they can possibly develop and be born? Wil
liam and Priscilla Neaves offered a succinct summary of the relationship of
IVF to these issues:
If the intrinsic worth of an early human embryo is no less than that of a newborn
infant, IVF cannot be rationally justified. On the other hand, if the principal
value of a human embryo derives from its ability to become a baby, IVF may
be seen as a moral way of awakening this potential where it would not otherwise
exist.16
The issue of waste requires that certain minimum guidelines be followed
in all IVF situations. The practice of placing in the womb all the embryos so
produced is surely correct. Thereby all embryos are given opportunity to
implant and develop. Beyond this step, great caution must be exercised in
placing embryos in storage for future use.17
13. Neaves and Neaves, “Moral Dimensions,” 20. A recent report suggests that the success
rates of infertility clinics may not be as high as they would have their patients believe. See “What
Do Infertility Clinics Really Deliver?”
U.S. News and World Report
, 3 April 1989, 74-75.
14. Otto Friedrich “A Legal, Moral Social Nightmare,”
Time,
10 September 1984, 54-56.
15. David T. Ozar argues that regardless of the answers to these questions, frozen embryos
ought to be kept in their frozen state until implanted in a womb or are no longer capable of
surviving implantation. “The Case Against Thawing Unused Frozen Embryos,”
Hasting Center
Report
15, 4 (1985): 7-12.
16. Neaves and Neaves, “Moral Dimensions,” 22.
17. The guidelines for freezing embryos offered by Grobstein, Flower, and Mendeloff serve
as an example: “The clinical community involved with in vitro fertilization should voluntarily
limit use
o f
embryo freezing to the initial purpose—i.e., to circumvent infertility in patients,
breezing should be carried
out
only with surplus embryos obtained from a clinically justifiable
laparoscopy,
and on thawing,
embryos should be returned to the uterus of the donor, usually
a l ter an unsuccess ful first at tempt to transfer unf rozen embryos. Thawed embryos shou ld be