Embryo Broker Criticized For Business Venture
POSTED: Thursday, January 11, 2007
UPDATED: 8:19 am CST January 11,
2007
SAN ANTONIO -- Jennalee Ryan said she is taking the next logical step in reproductive medicine.Ryan, founder of Abraham's Center of Life, is offering infertile couples a chance to conceive and carry a child who will have the genetic material of the couple's choosing."Every parent wants a smart, pretty baby," Ryan said in an interview with KSAT 12 News.Ryan is offering embryos that have the sperm provided by men with doctorate degrees and eggs donated by young, attractive, college-educated women."When you look for donors, we're going to be looking for the best odds," Ryan said.But some people claim that Ryan is playing God by offering what critics claim are designer babies."When you require some degree of college education from egg donors and college degrees from sperm donors, it's very difficult to get away from the argument that you're involved with eugenics, and designer babies," said Dr. Thomas Pool of the Fertility Center Of San Antonio.Pool said that infertile couples have other options besides the one that Ryan offers."Most couples can achieve success when they seek infertility therapy," Pool said. "They do not need to go to these sorts of means to do that."While Ryan is offering parents hope for a baby of their choosing, she stressed that there is no way to predict what the baby will look like."We don't know what color of eyes and hair our embryos are going to have," Ryan said. "(The embryos are) already created. We can't go back and change hair and eye coloring. That's ridiculous to even use the term (designer baby)."Ryan said that her embryos have a 70 percent success rate of pregnancy compared to 20 percent with a previously frozen embryo.She offers her embryos at $8,000, while frozen embryos go for thousands more, Ryan claimed.Two women who have been impregnated with Ryan's embryos and are due to deliver in March, she said.
Copyright 2007 by KSAT.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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