http://www.nlcafe.hu/egeszseg/20141210/mesterseges-megtermekenyites-/ - Hungarian women’s news portal nlcafe.hu investigates: As many as eight eggs may be fertilized during in vitro fertilization, but most of them are never “born”, that is they are stored in refrigerators at the clinics as reserves. What will happen to them? Who should decide about their fate? And should a woman be allowed to undergo the implantation if she is single?
“Most likely, couples focus only on success at the beginning of the interventions, and they do not really think about what should happen to their frozen embryos later on”, says Director of the Center for Ethics and Law in Biomedicine and Professor in the Department of Political Science at CEU Judit Sandor, who hopes that reproductive procedures will continue to develop in the future, and possibilities will become better known so that there would not be that many surplus embryos – as indeed, disposing of them does raise difficult ethical questions, even many years later. “After they come of age, children conceived and born as a result of embryo donation have the right to learn the circumstances of their conception and birth from the data that can be disclosed. The bulk of the regulations on reproduction was created in 1997, and a lot of things have changed since then. Regarding the right of disposal over stored frozen embryos, providing detailed and through information and their discussion is quintessential”, says Sandor, who is proud of the fact that in 1997 her proposal was included in the medical law, thus in Hungary, an embryo can be implanted upon a woman’s request even if she has become single in the meantime.
