The statutory body that licenses fertility treatment in the UK defended its refusal last week to allow almost 50 women to use their frozen eggs in IVF treatment. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) prohibits the thawing of frozen eggs because of its concerns about the potentially harmful effects that the thawing process might have on any resulting child. However, the freezing process has been legal since last October.
The Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre, the London-based fertility clinic where the women's eggs are currently being stored, has asked its lawyers to press for a reversal of the HFEA's position. The Centre is the only UK clinic with an HFEA licence to freeze eggs. It is understood that the centre will launch legal proceedings to overturn the ban if talks with the HFEA in a month do not resolve the issue. An appeal on a previous ruling is expected to be completed early next year.
One of the women involved in the dispute, Caroline Neill, 34, from Belfast, said that she had her eggs stored after being told that she would almost certainly lose her fertility after cancer treatment. But the HFEA ruling means that despite her cancer treatment having been successfully completed, she cannot use her eggs in treatment either in the UK or abroad. She told the BBC: 'Physically I'm getting older and I know that some time in the near future I would like to consider using the eggs.' 'I feel very cross. It should be down to Dr Taranissi and myself to discuss what we should do, not the government to have a law that is cut and dried. If you are allowed to do one stage, why not the end stage?. Dr Taranissi, director of the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre, said: 'It is very sad to find out that this technique is now being provided successfully in the United States and various parts of Europe and the Far East but banned in the United Kingdom.' But, Suzanne McCarthy, chief executive of the HFEA, said: 'We don't yet have the scientific evidence that the use of these thawed eggs is safe. We will not allow women to be experimented on.'
The HFEA has maintained that they will permit the use of frozen eggs once they have enough independent scientific evidence to show that the procedure is reasonably safe.
Sources and References
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Baby hope dashed for cancer victim
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Woman starts legal battle over her eggs
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Women fight for right to fertilise their frozen eggs
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Women at the mercy of the foetal police
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