Religious perspectives on embryo donation and research

31 October 2016

The success of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) worldwide has led to an accumulation of frozen embryos that are surplus to the reproductive needs of those for whom they were created. In these situations, couples must decide whether to discard them or donate them for scientific research or for use by other infertile couples. While legislation and regulation may limit the decisions that couples make, their decisions are often shaped by their religious beliefs. Unfortunately, health professionals, scientists and policy-makers are often unaware of the way in which faith traditions view ART and decisions concerning the ‘fate’ of surplus embryos. In this paper scholars representing six major religious traditions provide a commentary on a hypothetical case concerning the donation or destruction of excess ART embryos. These commentaries provide a rich account of religious perspectives on the status of the human embryo and an insight into the relevance of faith to health and policy decisions, particularly in reproductive medicine, ART and embryo research. The increasing availability and utilization of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) has led to an accumulation of frozen embryos that are surplus or excess to the needs of those for whom they were created within fertility clinics worldwide. Couples who have succeeded in becoming parents and have no further desire to reproduce are then faced with a difficult choice about the use of their frozen embryos – to discard them, or donate them either for scientific research or for use by other infertile couples. While relevant legislation and regulation may guide (or limit) the options open to couples in this situation, other considerations may influence the decision that couples make, including the desire to avoid regret, to advance scientific knowledge, to avoid ‘wasting’ embryos and to help other infertile couples, and to act in accordance with their beliefs regarding the value and appropriate ends and means of scientific research, and the moral status and potentiality of embryos.1−3 Each of these considerations may, in turn, be shaped by the beliefs, values and practices of a couple's faith community. In light of this, it is important that health professionals, scientists and policy-makers are aware of the ways that religious beliefs and practices may impact upon decisions to donate or destroy embryos and develop an understanding of the principal differences between, and within, the major religious traditions with respect to the status of the human embryo. To this end, we solicited commentaries on a hypothetical case from scholars representing six major religious traditions. The commentaries do not attempt to exhaustively survey the relevant discourse or views within these traditions, and other members of these traditions may well draw alternative conclusions from the same or different authoritative sources. The commentaries do, however, offer the considered responses of leading experts from each religious tradition and each are grounded in the key texts and in scholarly and popular interpretations of the respective doctrines.