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Human Reproduction, Vol. 15, No. 12, 2466-2469, December 2000
© 2000 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

Avoiding multiple pregnancies in ART

Multiple pregnancies: a test case for the moral quality of medically assisted reproduction

Guido Pennings

Department of Philosophy, Free University Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, Lok. 5 C 442, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium.E-mail: gpenning{at}vub.ac.be

Although most professional societies have issued guidelines to diminish the number of embryos to be transferred during assisted reproduction techniques, the incidence of multiple pregnancies remains unacceptably high. The negative psychological, social and medical consequences for the patients and their offspring easily outweigh the benefits in terms of increased success rates. Multiple pregnancies would never be tolerated if the `best interest of the child' standard was applied as strictly to these consequences, as it is to controversial family forms. The persistence of high multiple pregnancy rates is largely due to the pressure brought to bear on the physicians to increase the overall success rate. The fertility specialist should inform the patients about the risks and benefits of a multiple transfer but ultimately the specialist should decide how many embryos to transfer. Multifetal reduction is an ethically acceptable solution if, and only if, the physician has taken all reasonable steps to prevent the occurrence of a multiple pregnancy. Finally, an additional strategy to decrease the incidence of multiple pregnancies is proposed, i.e. to extend the professional responsibility of the fertility specialist to all steps of procreation including pregnancy, birth and neonatal care.

Key words: child welfare/embryo reduction/ethics/multiple pregnancy/success rate

This debate was previously published on Webtrack, September 19, 2000


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