A record high of almost 100,000 embryos were stored in the UK in 2021, it has been reported. New data from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) shows a 30 per cent increase in embryo freezing between 2019 and 2021. Until last year, frozen embryos could usually only be kept for ten years, but HFEA rules now permit them to be kept for 55 years – subject to renewed consent every decade. ‘Discarded’One woman, who is keeping an embryo in storage following IVF treatment, explained: “I don’t know how I would ever be able to say, ‘Please destroy the embryo’. People seem to forget that each one of these nearly 300,000 embryos is a human life – made in the image of God.

Source: The Times August 10, 2023 14:38 UTC