Another Study Shows Birth Defects Associated With IVF

Bioethics   |   Rebecca Taylor   |   Apr 25, 2012   |   11:40AM   |   Washington, DC

This is not news to readers of this blog, but here is another study that shows a significant increase in the risk of birth defects for children conceived with IVF.  From MSNBC:

Babies conceived through certain fertility treatment techniques are about one-third more likely to have a birth defect than babies conceived without any extra help from technology, according to a review of several dozen studies….

For more than 124,000 children born through IVF or using ICSI, in which a single sperm is injected directly into the egg, the risk of having a birth defect was 37 percent higher than that of the other children, they found.

“Children conceived by IVF and/or ICSI are at significantly increased risk for birth defects, and there is no risk difference between children conceived by IVF and/or ICSI,” the team wrote….

“(The report) confirms what most people accepted anyway, that, yes, there is an increased risk in congenital abnormality associated with assisted reproductive technology,” said William Buckett, a professor at McGill University, who was not involved with the review.

And yet those of us who mention this little factoid when talking about IVF are labeled as judgmental and mean-spirited.  We are told that we cannot possibly comment on IVF unless we have experienced infertility.

The way to treat infertility is not to create life in a dish with greater risk of harm to the child.  It is to treat the underlying cause of infertility and then let conception take place naturally, where it was intended…in the womb.  For information about alternatives to IVF for infertility visit NaProTechnology.com.

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