Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
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London, SE11 4AB, United Kingdom
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Email: information@spuc.org.uk

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IVF and the "disturbing commodification of human life"

Westminster, 16 November 2000--The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has noted that today's victory for Mrs Patricia Thompson in the High Court should be seen in the light of the disturbing commodification of human life which characterises in vitro fertilisation treatment in Britain today.

Paul Tully, general secretary of SPUC, said: "Mrs Thompson was the only one of 254 patients to have actually given birth to triplets as a result of having three embryos implanted. She refused to abort one of her unborn children. However, in many of the other cases, one of the implanted embryos was presumably selected for abortion. This sad statistic illustrates the astonishingly high number of unborn children whose lives are considered dispensable in the course of IVF treatment, both before and after implantation."