Lift the funding ban on embryo research

The human womb is, ideally, a single-occupancy dwelling. One baby at a time is what women's bodies are marvelously calibrated to conceive and carry.

One baby has lots of room for brain growth and organ development; one baby is (relatively) easy to deliver; one baby will usually have at least nine months of close parental bonding before another sibling possibly comes along.

Yet in the past 30 years, this country has experienced a stunning escalation in multiple births. The number of babies born as triplets, quadruplets or even more rose from about 900 in 1972 to 7,275 in 2004. That same year, the highest number of twins ever were born — 132,000, nearly double the number born in 1980. Not coincidentally, there has also been a rise in premature births, infants born with low birth weights and disorders — such as cerebral palsy — that can occur when a premature baby's brain is insufficiently developed.

In the debate over federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, these facts need to be talked about. The broad U.S. ban on embryo research funding is one major undiscussed cause of our epidemic of multiple births. We need to consider embryo research as something important to the health of mothers and infants.

One factor among several in the rise in multiple births is in vitro fertilization, the popularity of which has soared. This is not surprising, since one in seven couples struggles with infertility. There are now 50,000 children born in the United States every year through IVF conception. More than half enter the world as part of a set.

That's because doctors in the nation's 400 IVF clinics routinely transfer two, three or more embryos into a woman's uterus at a time. They do this because they have no reliable way of telling which embryo has the crucial ability to develop into a fetus.

Since the mid-1970s, when IVF science was getting started, there has been an effective U.S. ban on funding for embryo research. At first a series of presidential commissions debated the ethics while postponing a decision; a board was created to approve research requests but was quickly disbanded. Scientists could apply for funding, but there was no one to apply to.

In 1996 a law known as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment took effect prohibiting funding research involving the creation or destruction of embryos. The provision is regularly passed as part of the Department of Health and Human Services appropriations bill. It has become a conservative touchstone.