More Health Risks Found in IVF Babies -Scientist Suggests IVF Children Should be Monitored into Adulthood

By Hilary White

LONDON,July 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A study of 3,980 articles in medicaland scientific journals between 1980 and 2005 has shown significantly higherrisks of long-term medical problems for children conceived through artificialprocreation such as in vitro fertilisation or intracytoplasmic sperm injection,a method in which a selected sperm is injected into the ovum.

Dr.Alastair Sutcliffe, of the Institute of Child Health at University CollegeLondon and Dr. Michael Ludwig, of the Centre for Reproductive Medicine andGynaecologic Endocrinology in Hamburg, examined the data and have concludedthat babies conceived through artificial means should be monitored well intoadulthood.

The studyshowed the risk of miscarriage is between 20 and 34 per cent higher thannaturally conceived children. It showed 55 per cent increase in the risk ofpre-eclampsia, or hypertension in pregnancy; an increased risk of stillbirth at155 per cent; low birth weight at 70 to 77 per cent and very low birth weightat 170 to 200 per cent.

Majormalformations and cerebral palsy are also significantly more likely withartificially conceived children.

DrSutcliffe commented, “In-vitro fertilisation has been done for nearly 30 years;in developed countries at least 1% of births are from ARTs [assistedreproduction techniques]. These children now represent a substantial portion ofthe population but little is known about their health.”

The studycoincides with numerous others showing that IVF and related fertilitytechnologies produce significantly higher rates of serious health problems inchildren.

Mostrecently, a study published in the June 21, 2007 issue of Human Reproductionshowed that children conceived through IVF visit hospitals significantly moretimes (1.76 vs. 1.07 times) than naturally conceived children.

SeeLifeSiteNews.com's summary page on IVF here:

http://www.lifesite.net/features/invitro/