Virginia-based reporter Elizabeth Simpson reports from Norfolk:
It has a science-fiction ring to it – “Baby born from embryo frozen nearly 20 years” – but there’s nothing futuristic about the idea. // Fertility experts at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine assisted in the very real birth of a healthy baby in May from an embryo that had been “cryopreserved” for 19 years and 7 months.
The embryo had been donated anonymously by a patient of the Jones clinic who already had a son through in vitro fertilization – a process in which an egg fertilized with sperm in the lab is transferred to the mother’s womb.
The recipient, a 42-year-old infertile woman whose place of residence was not released, had the thawed embryo implanted in her womb last year and gave birth to a baby boy in May.
Ms. Simpson asks,
And what if the two boys in this case, genetically brothers, want to meet someday? What are their rights?
Head to your ethical imaginations and chime in – we want to know what you think. Or, is there a better question you’d love to hash out on the subject?