More on the ethics, family expectations, and financial costs of assisted reproduction in the aftermath of "the octuplets."
The New York Times recently ran this piece on the unfolding questions around assisted reproduction. Here's an excerpt:
[U]nlike some other countries, the United States has no laws to enforce those guidelines [of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine]. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a surveillance system that collects data on fertility clinics, but reporting is voluntary and there are no government sanctions for not reporting.
As a result, experts say many doctors are still implanting too many embryos to increase the chance of pregnancy. Only 11 percent of in vitro procedures in the United States involve single embryos, according to 2006 data from the C.D.C.
But the 2008 guidelines say that in many cases, it is healthier to implant only one embryo, even if it means the process has to be repeated, because of the risk of multiple births. In the case of Ms. Suleman, the California Medical Board said it was investigating her fertility doctor, Michael M. Kamrava, to determine whether accepted standards of medical practice had been violated. In an interview with NBC News, Ms. Suleman, 33, said that Dr. Kamrava had implanted six embryos, and that two of them had divided into twins, resulting in eight babies.
Like I've said before, sometimes the laws or regulations for new areas of life have a hard time keeping up. In this area, it's not even in the rear-view mirror.
(Photo by Colin Gregory Palmer; used by permission.)
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