World has 5 million test tube people
Fertilisation involves placing an egg and sperm
together in a petri dish for conception:
FRANCE: In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) has given the world about
five million new people since the first test tube baby was born in
England 34 years ago, according to an estimate released on Monday.
As the initial controversy over man's scientific manipulation of
nature has faded, about 350,000 babies conceived in petri dishes are now
born every year, said the European Society of Human Reproduction and
Embryology (ESHRE).
That represents about 0.3 percent of the 130-million-odd babies added
to the world population annually.
“Millions of families with children have been created, thereby
reducing the burden of infertility,” said David Adamson, chairman of the
International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive
Technologies (ICMART).
IVF, which involves placing an egg and sperm together in a petri dish
for conception, and a sub-category known as ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm
injection) where the sperm is inserted with a micro-needle directly into
the egg, have become commonplace.
But it has proven controversial over the years, with some fearing it
paved the way for so-called designer babies whose characteristics are
chosen by parents.
The Vatican considers it immoral because of the wastage of a large
number of embryos, and the procedure has been criticised for allowing
women to have children until a much older age.
The five million milestone “justifies all the legal and moral
battles, the ethical debates and hard-fought social approval,” said
Simon Fishel, a member of the team that helped conceive the world's
first IVF baby, Louise Brown, born in 1978.
The birth estimate was done by ICMART for the 28th annual meeting of
ESHRE which opened in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday. It was based on the
number of IVF and ICSI treatments recorded worldwide up to 2008, and
estimates for the years thereafter for which confirmed figures are not
yet available.
The data showed that about 1.5 million IVF and ICSI treatments are
now administered around the world every year -- more than a third of
them in Europe.
Success rates have stabilised, with about a third of fertilised
embryos implanted resulting in a live birth. ESHRE said there was a
trend in Europe to implant fewer embryos at a time, causing a drop in
multiple births which carry a higher risk of complications for the
mother, a lower baby birth weight, and developmental difficulties.
The number of triplets has fallen below one percent, said the
statement, “and for the first time, the twin delivery rate was below 20
percent.”
AFP |