Clinic dilemma over unclaimed frozen embryos

An Arizona-based fertility clinic planned to destroy all unclaimed frozen embryos as of 15 July - a move which marks the first time that a fertility clinic in the United States has announced such plans. The clinic ran an advertisement in The Arizona Republic on 27 June that began, 'If you feel you have embryos or sperms stored with Arizona Institute of Reproductive Medicine, please contact us immediately', warning that all specimens unclaimed by the deadline would be destroyed.

The 69 year-old founder of the clinic, Dr Robert Tamis, plans to close the clinic and retire this year. About 50 patients have up to 16 embryos in frozen storage at the clinic. About 75 sperm samples also need to be claimed. When the clinic first began freezing embryos in the mid 1980s, no one could have predicted this situation, but several years ago a number clinics across the US - including Tamis' clinic - started requiring patients to sign contracts to determine the fate of any unclaimed and forgotten embryos. But clinic workers in Arizona have been on an all out search for past patients - even for those who authorised the clinic to destroy their embryos in such an eventuality.

The only guidance that exists on this issue is the conclusion of the ethics panel of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in 1997 that clinics can destroy unclaimed embryos after five years. But experts say there is no legal precedent for Tamis' clinic.