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Embryos frozen over 10 years to be destroyed
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SHANGHAI Jiai Genetics and IVF Institute, which offers embryo freezing service, is considering destroying over 10-year-old frozen embryos as their owners are either missing or have not paid their dues for years.
The Shanghai institute decided to act after a similar center in Jiangsu Province recently announced that it was planning to destroy thousands of embryos stored with it.
Sun Xiaoxi, vice president of the Shanghai Jiai Genetics institute, said the center had 71,309 embryos frozen at minus 196 degrees Celsius in 70 liquid nitrogen containers. Out of that, 14,410 have been stored with them for more than 10 years, including the first four embryos frozen in its laboratory at the end of November 1998 shortly after it was established.
The institute is the oldest and the largest of the 11 embryo cryopreservation centers in the city.
Sun said half of the owners could not be located.
“The IVF treatment is getting more and more popular,” Sun told Shanghai Daily. “In the beginning we just did 100 or 200 such services a year, but now it runs into thousands — almost 5,000 to 6,000 a year.”
Embryos of IVF are usually frozen when it is not suitable for a woman to receive the transplant, or when some of the embryos have already been transplanted.
When couples agree to freeze the embryo, they have to pay 150 yuan per month. In the agreement, it says that if couples skip payments for six months, the institute can either destroy the embryo or use it for medical research without their permission.
But in practice, before taking any decision the center try to get the consent of the couple before destroying the embryo in front of them. If they are untraceable, the center continues to store them.
“The embryos are very precious, not like ordinary commodities,” Sun said. “We are afraid the couples might need them in future or are unable to produce high-quality ones later.”
Sun said the center did not expect so many people to leave their embryos in the cold.
Since 1998, a total of 27,076 couples have kept their embryos at the Jiai labs, but only 304 couples have given written consents to give up their frozen embryos.
“Some people simply forget to pay the money, and when we call them, they pay up and maintain their embryos,” Sun said. “But many others had either changed their phone numbers, email addresses, or even moved homes. We just cannot contact them any more.
“Maybe they do not want others to know they received IVF treatment.”
Sun said the huge number of frozen embryos was a burden on the lab.
“They not only occupy space, but also need medical staff and resources to maintain them,” Sun said. “It is a financial burden for us as the fees are not enough to cover the costs.”
“Frankly, those stored for over 10 years may not be any good as women are more likely to cross the age to bear children. Besides, there is not enough scientific evidence that it was safe to use embryos that have been lying frozen for so long.”
In 2013, the Shanghai Health Bureau issued a circular over quality control in assisted reproduction service, telling institutes to follow internationally accepted principle to use frozen embryos within five years.
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