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Jan. 6, 2007, 2:03PM
Texas firm first to offer ready-made embryos
Founder says creating batches lowers cost for parents; some call it unethical
By ROB STEIN
Washington Post
A San Antonio company has started producing batches of ready-made embryos that single women and infertile couples can order after reviewing detailed information about the race, education, appearance, personality and other characteristics of the egg and sperm donors.
The Abraham Center of Life, the first commercial dealer making embryos in advance for unspecified recipients, was created to help make it easier and more affordable for clients to have babies that match their preferences, according to its founder.
"We're just trying to help people have babies," said Jennalee Ryan, who arranged for an egg donor to start medical treatments to produce a second batch of embryos this week. "For me, that's what this is all about: helping make babies."
But the embryo brokerage, which calls itself "the world's first human embryo bank," raises alarm among some fertility experts and bioethicists, who say the service marks another disturbing step toward commercialization of human reproduction and "designer babies."
"We're increasingly treating children like commodities," said Mark Rothstein, a bioethicist at the University of Louisville. "It's like you're ordering a computer from Dell: You give them the specs, and they put it in the mail. I don't think we should consider mail-order computers and other products the same way we consider children."
Off the shelf
Prospective parents have long been able to select egg or sperm donors based on ethnicity, education and other traits. Couples also can "adopt" embryos left over at fertility clinics, or have embryos created for them. But the new service marks the first time anyone has started turning out embryos as off-the-shelf products.
Before contracting for the embryos, clients can evaluate the egg and sperm donors and can even see pictures of them as babies, children and sometimes adults. A fertility specialist will then transfer the embryos into a client's womb or into a surrogate.
"We're the only one in the world doing this right now," Ryan said.
Some fertility doctors and ethicists are undisturbed by the Abraham Center because the service does not differ markedly from what already happens at fertility clinics.
"I know some people say: 'This is shocking. Embryos made to order,' " said John Robertson of the University of Texas at Austin, who advises fertility specialists on ethical issues. "But if you step back a little bit, you realize that people are already choosing sperm and egg donors in separate transactions. Combining them doesn't pose any new major ethical problems."
But others condemned the process as the unsettling culmination of recent objectionable developments, including the payment of egg and sperm donors and the growing tendency to try to select traits such as sex, intelligence and appearance.
"People have long warned we were moving toward a Brave New World, " said Robert George of Princeton University, who serves on the President's Council on Bioethics.
Ryan dismissed the complaints.
"People can say, 'Oh, this is the new Hitler.' That's not the case," she said. "I don't take orders. I say 'This is what I have' and send them the background. If they don't think it's right ... they don't have to take them."
No discrimination
So far, the embryos Ryan has created have been from white donors, but she said that was because most of the couples that have contacted her are white. Among the more than 150 couples on her waiting list are blacks, and she plans to try to create embryos for them, as well as possibly other races and mixes of races.
Ryan is using only egg donors who are in their 20s and have at least some college education and only sperm donors who have advanced education, such as a Ph.D or law degrees. All must undergo a standard round of health tests, as well as screening to make sure they have no criminal record or family history of mental illness, Ryan said.
"If I do discriminate, it's that I only want healthy, intelligent people," Ryan said.
Lower cost advantage
Ryan said the main advantage is not the attributes of the donors but the cost: She charges $2,500 per embryo and estimates the total price tag should be less than $10,000 for each attempt at pregnancy, which is much less than standard adoption or in vitro fertilization.
The cost, convenience, prospects of success and ability to vet the donors all are attractive to Ryan's clients.
"You get to get an idea of what your baby will look like, and it just seems like it's a lot easier and more affordable," said Joan, 42, of Birmingham, Ala., who asked that her last name not be used. She contacted Ryan after she was unable to get pregnant using three egg donors and becoming disenchanted by the prolonged process of trying to adopt a child or a leftover embryo.
A Houston doctor whom Ryan planned to hire to create a second batch of embryos dropped out after learning what Ryan was doing, she said. A doctor in New York subsequently signed on.
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