Is IVF safe?

IVF is 25 years old but more research is needed

In a HARDtalk interview broadcast on 6 November, Tim Sebastian talks to Lord Winston, a Labour peer and professor of fertility studies at London's Imperial College, about why he is worried that not enough work is being done to assess the risks of IVF.

In vitro fertilisation may have celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, but one leading expert has increasing concerns about its safety.

"IVF is a good treatment, it's clearly a relatively safe treatment, it's by no means a very successful treatment and the very fact that so many embryos don't make it should cause pause for wonder why that is."

Professor Winston says that only 18 per cent of embryos become babies - part of this is innate to humans, but studies also show that some of the processes embryos undergo during some kinds of IVF treatment cause changes to their genes.

He says there is a need for health services to conduct long-term follow-up of IVF children, as overseas studies show that babies born from IVF run a higher risk of birth defects than babies conceived naturally.

"There are regular reports in Western Australia of a high abnormality rate, two and a half times the general population .. that should cause grounds for concern."

more research

Professor Winston called for more research to be done into human embryos to determine what changes take place during certain stages of the IVF process.

He noted that some researchers are concerned about the ethics of embryo research, but said "it seems to me that it's better to experiment on the embryo than on a person that might survive a treatment".

In August the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, a government watchdog, suggested that IVF treatment should be available on Britain's National Health Service.

This is a development that Lord Winston applauds.

"I'm delighted .. because now it will change the stance of much of the commerciality that has troubled me about this system."

Some critics have claimed that it will be too expensive for the NHS to provide this kind of "lifestyle" treatment, and that other sectors may suffer as a result.

But Lord Winston says the NHS will actually save money if this is implemented.

At present, he says, many clinics will implant more than one fertilised embryo in women undergoing IVF, meaning that multiple births are common.

concerns

If the NHS stops this practice, it will save money because it will not have to provide intensive care to IVF twins or triplets.

Lord Winston has in the past been extremely critical of the NHS, and he still has concerns.

He says he thinks the NHS is becoming increasingly large and unwieldy, and needs to be broken down into its constituent parts.

He also says too much money is spent on bureaucracy.

Lord Winston admitted to Tim Sebastian that he had faced pressure from within Downing Street for expressing his views, but he said he will continue to speak out.

HARDtalk can be seen on BBC World at 04:30 GMT, 11:30 GMT, 15:30 GMT, 19:30 GMT and 00:30 GMT

It can also be seen on BBC News 24 at 04:30 and 23:30