Register for American Society for Reproductive Medicine Comments on California Octuplets
January 30, 2009.
For more information, contact Sean Tipton at 202-863-2494, stipton@asrm-dc.org;
Eleanor Nicoll at 202-863-2439, enicoll@asrm-dc.org.
Statement Attributable to R. Dale McClure, MD, President
First and most importantly, we are pleased that all eight babies and their
mother appear to be doing well and applaud the medical team that managed the
pregnancy, delivered the babies and is now caring for them. Nevertheless, the
occurrence of high order multiple births is not a desirable outcome.
Over the last decade, the ASRM and our affiliate the Society for Assisted
Reproductive Technology (SART) have worked diligently to reduce the number of
high order multiple births resulting from IVF treatments. We have produced
guidelines restricting the number of embryos transferred during IVF. Published
research confirms that these guidelines have led to fewer embryos being
transferred and a marked reduction in the number of high order multiple births.
At this point, we do not know the circumstances surrounding the conception of
these children and what if any medical treatments were involved. If this
resulted from an IVF treatment, we can say that transferring eight embryos in an
IVF cycle is well beyond our guidelines. Working with (SART) we have a process
for looking into these kind of matters and taking appropriate action.
Concerns for confidentiality preclude us from making any additional comments on
this specific case at this time.
For more information go to
www.asrm.org
