Word: vitro
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...polar body is detached, and a new genetic test called ! polymerase chain reaction is employed to analyze the chromosomes, which are complementary to those left in the egg's nucleus. Eggs that are not defective can then be selected and used in an increasingly common procedure known as in vitro fertilization. This involves placing the eggs in a soup of sperm and implanting resulting embryos in the mother's womb. The main difficulty is that only one in ten tries results in a birth. Yet the success rate may improve, and prefertilization diagnosis could someday be used to intercept defective...
...dilemma might have stumped even King Solomon: what to do with seven fertilized eggs of a divorcing Tennessee couple that are frozen at an in-vitro fertilization clinic in Knoxville. Mary Sue Davis, 29, is unable to conceive by natural means and wants custody of her "pre-born children" for future implantation. Junior Davis, 31, claims he is being "raped of my reproductive rights" by his estranged wife and insists on having a joint say on the future of the embryos. "I do not want a child of mine in a single-parent situation," he argued...
...opinion loaded with some of the coded language that often surrounds abortion controversies, Young ruled that "human life begins at conception." The lawsuit ought to be decided as a question of custody, he concluded, and "it is to the manifest best interests of the child or children, in vitro that they be available for implantation." Questions of final custody, child support and visitation rights will be decided later if there is a birth. Junior Davis immediately announced he would appeal...
Many medical and legal experts fear that the ruling, if upheld, could slow in-vitro research and intensify the national abortion debate. "A bad decision," says Ellen Wright Clayton, a specialist in law and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University. The judge could simply have weighed the respective interests of each spouse, Clayton contends, and decided to award the eggs to Mrs. Davis without going on to say when life begins...
Such controversies underscore the lack of clear rules to help resolve many of the ambiguities raised by the decade-old, $1 billion in-vitro baby business -- particularly when the clinics and couples, like the Davises, fail to set out their rights and responsibilities in contracts. "Legislators don't want to touch this hot potato," says Boston University Law School professor Frances Miller, "so the courts have to deal with these issues." With more than 200 conception clinics around the country, and 2 million couples seeking their services, the judges may get a workout...