Aborted Fetuses Provide Source For Egg Shortages

Mon Jun 30, 3:52 PM ET

MADRID, Spain (Reuters) - Aborted fetuses could one day help to relieve the worldwide shortage of human eggs for fertility treatments, an Israeli scientist said Monday.

Women are born with a finite number of eggs that diminish over time. For older women who want to have a child an egg donated from a younger woman may be her only chance of success. But demand for donated eggs exceeds supply.

Researchers in Israel said they have removed ovarian tissue, from aborted fetuses, which could mature into eggs that could be used in in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.

"I am fully aware of the controversy about this, but most probably, in some place it would be ethically acceptable," Dr Tal Biron-Shental, of the Meir Hospital-Sapir Medical Center in Kfar Saba in Israel, told a European fertility conference.

"There is a shortage of donated oocytes (eggs) for IVF, oocytes from aborted fetuses may provide a new source for these," she added.

Scientists grew tissue containing immature eggs, from seven fetuses aborted late in pregnancy, in the laboratory for up to four weeks.

The research, which was done in collaboration with scientists from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, is in its early stages in humans but the technique has been used successfully to produce mice.

The British anti-abortion group Life described the research reported at the European Society of Human Fertilization and Embryology meeting as grotesque and said most people would repulsed by the idea.

Professor Roger Gosden, a fertility expert at the Jones Institute of Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk, Virginia, said the use of fetal material raises many ethical questions including the issue of consent.

He also questioned its necessity because there have been scientific advances in cultivating eggs from mature ovarian tissue. "I don't think we need to use fetal material. The only advantage is that there are more eggs," he told journalists at the meeting.

Nuala Scarisbrick, from the charity Life, said: "I imagine moat normal people would be revulsed by the idea of this. "Who would want to know that their mother was an aborted baby?" she asked.

Nearly 5,000 doctors, scientists and fertility experts are attending the four-day meeting.