60% of people with embryos in U.S. fertility clinics would consider donating them for stem cell research

Jun 22 2007

About 60% of people who have embryos stored at U.S. fertility clinics would be very or somewhat likely to donate them for stem cell research, according to a survey published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science, Reuters reports (Dunham, Reuters, 6/20).

For the survey, Anne Drapkin Lyerly, associate professor of gynecology at Duke University, and Ruth Faden, director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, sent questionnaires to 2,000 random couples at fertility clinics around the country (AP/CBS News, 6/20). They received responses from 1,020 people who have embryos stored at nine fertility clinics in California, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. (Reuters, 6/20).

Federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research currently is allowed only for research using embryonic stem cell lines created on or before Aug. 9, 2001, under a policy announced by President Bush on that date. Bush on Wednesday vetoed a bill (S 5) -- called the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 -- that would have allowed federal funding for research using stem cells derived from human embryos originally created for fertility treatments and willingly donated by patients (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 6/21).

According to the survey, 49% said they were likely to donate some or all of their stored embryos to research, and 62% of the people surveyed said they would donate the embryos specifically for stem cell research (AP/CBS News, 6/20). About 28% said they would be willing to donate embryos to improve cloning techniques for medical science, and 22% of those surveyed were willing to donate the embryos to other couples for fertility procedures, the survey found.

There are about 400,000 embryos stored in U.S. fertility clinics, Reuters reports. According to researchers, the survey suggests that about 10 times as many embryos could be available for research than previously estimated, which could produce 2,000 to 3,000 viable stem cell lines, or about 100 times the number of lines available for use in federally funded studies (Reuters, 6/20).

Comments
"Large numbers of infertility patients ... support using embryos for research, and these are people who have invested emotionally and financially in these embryos," Lyerly said, adding that the study "suggests that people are more willing to pursue research when they know more about it and how it might benefit their fellow citizens." Lyerly also said that donating to research was preferred over donating the embryos to other infertile couples, "which brings into question the idea that the more you care about an embryo, the more you want it to become a child" (AP/CBS News, 6/20).

Faden said, "We have a kind of collision course between the current public policy at the federal level in the U.S. and what the people who are responsible legally and ethically for these embryos would like to do with their embryos" (Reuters, 6/20).

NPR's "Talk of the Nation" on Friday in the first hour of the program is scheduled to include a discussion about the survey. The scheduled guest for the program is Lyerly ("Talk of the Nation: Science Friday" Web site, 6/22). Additional details about the segment are available online. A broadcast schedule also is available online. Audio of the segment will be available on the program's Web site after the broadcast.