THE planned destruction of more than 3,000 unwanted frozen embryos in 10 days at fertility clinics across Britain was strongly condemned by the Vatican and anti abortion groups yesterday.
The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, described the destruction as a "pre natal massacre" and denounced British laws which rule that frozen embryos must be destroyed after five years unless the parents give their consent for further storage.
"This means that from today on, each year tens of thousands of embryos will be destroyed, tens of thousands of innocent lives will be cut short by law. This is a prenatal massacre, a massacre not only tolerated but programmed and ordered by the same civil legislatures transformed into an instrument of perverse logic of violence and death", the newspaper argued.
But the head of Britain's Human and Fertilisation Embryology Authority, Mrs Ruth Deech defended the decision, claiming it was preferable to other options such as adoption, which were morally and ethically wrong. "If parental consent cannot be obtained, the storage has to cease, which means, sadly, allowing a number of embryos to perish. But if you think through the other options, of using them without the consent of individuals, or of keeping them stored indefinitely, these options are far less acceptable. Some have suggested that these embryos should be donated or `adopted'. This would be wrong, both legally and ethically."
Although every possible effort had been made by the authority and the clinics to trace the parents of these 3,300 "orphaned" embryos, Mrs Deech admitted that 900 couples had lost contact with their in vitro fertilisation clinics.
Under IVF, eggs are taken from women and then fertilised outside the womb. Because of the high failure rate, couples are allowed to freeze the embryos and store them for future use. These "orphaned" embryos are normally unclaimed if the couple's IVF treatment has been successful.
The issue does not arise in this State because, under Irish Medical Council guidelines, embryos are not stored in the Republic.
An anti abortion Liberal Democrat MP, Mr David Alton, described the destruction of embryos as wrong and called for a change in the law to allow unwanted embryos to be given to childless couples.