Frozen embryo mix-up is not a disaster for IVF

This week's news that a number of frozen embryos stored in two UK IVF clinics have gone missing could be a disaster for the couples involved. If the embryos don't turn up - which they may well do - those couples will have to start their IVF treatment from scratch if they want to have another go at conceiving. Another IVF cycle means more drugs, more waiting and hoping and probably more expense. Whilst a clinic at fault in this way will no doubt offer free treatment as recompense, the undertaking of another round of IVF is certainly no fun, especially for the woman involved.

But whilst this fiasco may be a disaster for the couples and the clinics concerned, it should not be seen as a disaster for IVF or for embryo freezing, despite many commentators' attempts to tell us so.

First up was Anne Atkins in the Mail on Sunday. According to Ms Atkins, 'the artificial creation and freezing of embryos is unnatural; it is subject to human endeavour - and subject to human frailty'. And then came a spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, who in true I-told-you-so fashion said 'we object to turning human procreation into a lab process. Part of the reason is on the grounds of the inevitable mishaps that occur'.

These commentators are, to a greater or lesser degree, opponents of IVF and embryo freezing. So it comes a no surprise that they would leap on an apparent human error to bolster their objection to the whole process. But their criticisms are dishonest.

If this error were really as inevitable as is suggested, why hasn't it happened before? In the UK, over 250,000 embryos have been stored so that patients could use them for further treatment, yet this - terrible as it is - is the first instance of a mistake. Mix-ups with embryos are no more inevitable than switched babies in maternity wards or the wrong patient having an appendix removed. Does this mean that hospital deliveries or appendectomies were foolhardy developments just waiting to fail? Of course not. It means that when the stakes are high, hospitals should check, check and check again.