• Question: What happens to leftover embryos created for IVF?

    Asked by amberlucy to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 15 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      A lot of leftover embryos created for IVF are thrown away after the couples receiving IVF either have a child or give up trying. These couples might also be asked if they mind donating their embryos to science for research. This is their choice. Many couples do not want to donate their embryos, so these are destroyed, but many are happy for them to be donated. Some of these embryos will be used to get embryonic stem cells and others might be experimented on as embryos in the lab, but scientists are not allowed to let the embryos develop too far.

    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      Leftover embryos are destroyed if they are not used for research. The problem is that to have the best chance for IVF to work you need to create a lot of embryos and select the ones to be implanted. There are also several embryos implanted at one go to improve the chances of success because people only have a certain number of gos at IVF, this is also why IVF produces a lot of multiple births, twins, triplets etc.

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