Sir, - The recent and highly publicised destruction of up to 3,000 embryos in the UK should give food for thought to many people in this country. IVF has been practised in the Republic for over ten years without legislation of any kind, and in view of the fact that the procedure depends on the production of numbers of embryos in excess of those required to effect successful pregnancy, continued and unquestioning acceptance of this procedure will oblige us to also confront the concept of "spare embryos".
Other countries, Britain among them, have adopted measures to regulate the ultimate destiny of embryos produced during IXF. These measures have almost invariably allowed for prolonged cryopreservation (freezing), embryo research and ultimate destruction. The ensuing legal battles and bizarre bureaucracy (such as putting embryos "on hold" while wailing for parental consent forms to arrive in the post [The Irish Times, August 3rd]) have featured regularly in medical journals for many years.
In another context, they might be considered entertaining. In the context of human lives, such events are nothing but a ghoulish and unacceptable trivialisation of the right to life.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will be asked to endorse a Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine in the autumn. The text explicitly allows embryo research and stipulates only that the law "shall provide adequate protection of the embryo". There is no such law in this country, nor any consensus on what might constitute "adequate protection".
The Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is currently studying the possibility of introducing guidelines governing embryo preservation in Ireland. Guidelines do not have the force of law, nor can they substitute for it. There are already plans to incorporate embryo freezing into the IVF programme of at least one clinic in the Republic, and it is, reasonable to presume that there will be more. Do we really want the events of last week to be repeated in Dublin, or Clane, or anywhere?
The public has never been asked for its opinion on embryo freezing. It must surely have one. Yours, etc., Queen's Park, Monkstown, Co Dublin.