Show In support of science couples d donate Shari Roan Los Angeles Times Chris and Tanya Bailey of Mission Viejo Calif have a year old and triplet toddlers all conceived through in vitro fertilization After the birth of the triplets they had 13 embryos left leftover leftover over in The idea of discarding them made the couple uneasy I thought of them as potential life but I dont don't think of them as children says Chris Bailey They are definitely more than sperm and egg After much discussion the couple decided to donate the embryos to research We felt we were so lucky that research had been done and that it gave us the opportunity to have children says Tanya Bailey So why not give our embryos to research aswell as aswell aswell well to help somebody else out The decision to donate to research says Chris Bailey was a logical choice Even after grappling with the decision however many people find that donating to research is easier said than done People wishing to donate to research must complete detailed paperwork and may even be asked to select the type of medical research for which they want their donation used Others find they cannot proceed with L their h ir donation if they used egg and sperm donors who would not consent to the the donation Still others simply cant can't find a medical research organization to accept their donation For Californians at least donating unused embryos to research has become somewhat easier in the last two years The launch of the states state's stem cell research program and the opening of ofa a dedicated tissue bank at atthe atthe atthe the University of California San Francisco has opened at least one clear path for donation by providing families to a place for send their embryos where they will be available to researchers As stem cell research moves forward and viable treatments emerge there will be a greater demand forthe for foi forthe the use of frozen embryos says Lois Uttley director of oi the Project a patients' patients rights organization based in New York City That could raise the profile of this issue The T e few states that fund stem cell research are more likely to be able to connect donating families to specific research programs that need embryos People in other states do not have a clear pathway to donation says R. R Alta Charo a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison Most IVF IW clinics are not hooked up to a research team and they may not be able to refer couples to a clinic who can do it for them she says At the UC San Francisco IVF Tissue Bank which opened in 2005 couples have some choices as to the type of research they will be assisting In cases where families donate to a specific research program they often do not have the ability to specify the kind of research they wish to support There however Level 1 allows donated tissue to be studied but doesn't allow for or the creation of stem cell ell lines Level 2 allows ill all Level 1 research and the creation of a stem cell line evel 3 allows Levels 1 and 2 research and in addition allows tissue to be used for fortem tem stem cell nuclear transfer which is known also as therapeutic cloning In Inthis Inthis this his type of research stem yells jells are extracted from the embryo and are allowed to grow row into a piece of tissue or Dr organ but never a human being eing Individuals who donate do io not incur any costs but they hey should be prepared to o spend plenty of time on paperwork says Denise Bernstein coordinator of the bank The packet sent to donors from contains pages of information as well as numerous forms some of which must be notarized In addition the tissue I Q ii Los Angeles Times Tames photo by Mark Boster An image of human embryos appears on a computer screen next to Dr David Diaz at a fertility clinic in Fountain Fountain Fountain Foun Foun- tain Valley Calif Infertility patients who dont don't want to discard their unused embryos can donate them for research or for adoption but either option is difficult to carry out bank conducts a telephone interview with the donors The process' process goal is to fully inform the donor or donors and to gather information scientists may need for their research Some people say You know what Its It's easier to discard them Bernstein says They have to tobe to be motivated to want want want-to to do do this Though the the banks bank's paperwork may maybe maybe maybe be especially laborious because of the options for stem cell research most research groups have a detailed consent process says Dr David Diaz an Orange County Calif infertility doctor The bureaucracy can be overwhelming In his clinic says Diaz fewer than 1 percent of patients with frozen embryos have donated to research over the thelast thelast thelast last three years And a sizable number of potential donors are turned away because of consent questions People who used donor eggs or donor sperm to create their embryos must obtain the consent of those donors before embryos can be released to researchers something that may be impossible if the gametes eggs or sperm were donated long ago especially if anonymous donors were used About 15 percent of all IVF cycles involve donor eggs Egg and arid sperm donors m may also b be asked to provide some personal health information Researchers often want to know about the donors donor's personal and family medical history Donors may be asked if they can be contacted inthe inthe in inthe the future if the research yields information that could be useful to them or orto orto orto to see if any health changes have occurred since the donation Moreover many research organizations including California state-funded state research groups will not accept frozen embryos in which an egg donor was compensated in any way which is often the case with anonymous donors Protecting gamete donors' donors rights is critical says Nanette Elster director of the Health Law Institute at DePaul University College of Law in hi Chicago Someone may have donated with the idea that he or she is donating to help helpa a woman build a family she says But if that is not what the family is going to use it for maybe they wouldn't wouldn't- get consent The donors are individuals with concerns and a stake in the process Researchers hope that as the process becomes more familiar more couples will donate Evolving research suggests that stem cell researchers might have a aneed aneed aneed need for many embryos For F or example some studies show that individual stem cell lines have a preference for the way they develop Charo notes Some differentiate more easily into heart tissue Some seem to differentiate more easily into neurological tissue Having a broad range of stem cells will help develop lines that can be used more efficiently Moreover some people may have an immune reaction to tissues made with specific stem cells she says Thus it may be necessary to have a large variety of stem cell lines to obtain a variety of matches specific Disease-specific stem cell lines are also needed researchers say For example cell lines maybe may maybe be created from an embryo that carries the gene for a specific disease or a high risk of developing that disease Although stem cells may mayone mayone mayone one day be derived by other methods those derived from embryos are for now the gold standard in research says Dr Marie Csete chief scientific officer for forthe forthe forthe the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine There is absolutely no need to take every frozen embryo and make a stem cell line she says But the science is changing a lot We Ve need diverse human stem cell lines to really understand the biology of a stem cell at a baseline |