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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1999
> January
> January 8, 1999:
Hour One: Fertility Treatments/Multiple Births
It's possible to have too much of a good thing. Treatments for infertility have helped thousands of women conceive. However, cases like that of Nkem Chukwu, who recently gave birth to octuplets, point to some of the dangers of today's high-tech reproductive techniques - and also raise some ethical questions.
| As the use of fertility drugs and in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques has increased, the incidence of multiple births has soared - quadrupling since the 1970's. While normally women release only one egg each month, under stimulation by fertility drugs as many as forty eggs can mature. Some doctors monitor the number of maturing eggs by ultrasound, and make recommendations to women about their options based on that information, but others don't. Even informed patients can choose to ignore medical advice and go ahead with intercourse or insemination when multiple eggs are present, resulting in more multiple pregnancies. Common practice in IVF is to implant multiple fertilized eggs, in the hopes of increasing the chances of one surviving. But more and more, as success rates improve, those multiple eggs become multiple fetuses. |  | A multiple pregnancy increases the chance of premature birth, and means that there is a higher chance of respiratory, digestive, or neurological disorders among surviving children. Babies that survive often must spend months in the hospital, at tremendous expense. Bearing multiple fetuses simultaneously also puts the mother at risk of anemia, hypertension, and labor complications. But many women are loathe to resort to "selective reduction," giving lethal injections to some of the fetuses to improve the odds for those that remain. Patients also sometimes decide to risk multiple pregnancy to try to conceive more quickly and put an end to the frayed nerves and high costs that can go along with today's high-tech fertility treatments.
What can hopeful parents do when faced with these issues? Who should make the decisions, and who should bear the costs? Join in a discussion of the science and ethics of new reproduction technologies on this hour of Science Friday.
Guests:
Andrea Bonnicksen
Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL
Deborah Wachenheim
Government Affairs Director
RESOLVE, Inc
Somerville, MA
J. Benjamin Younger, MD
Executive Director
American Society for Reproductive Medicine
Birmingham, AL
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
American Society for Reproductive Medicine
Association of Reproductive Health Professionals
RESOLVE
This segment produced by:
Karin Vergoth
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
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