Spanish IVF 'adoption' scheme wins Catholic blessing

[emad]

Ben Sills in Madrid
Monday February 28, 2005
The Guardian

A 41-year-old woman from Catalonia is carrying Spain's first adopted embryo as a result of an innovative programme which has won fertility doctors the surprise support of the Roman Catholic church.

Eva Tarrida yesterday told her family that not only is she three months pregnant, but the foetus growing inside her comes from an egg fertilised seven years ago and frozen in liquid nitrogen since then.

Ms Tarrida is the first mother-to-be from an embryo adoption programme set up last year at the Marqués Clinic in Barcelona. The programme aims to match women who want to have children with the extra embryos produced by couples undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment.

Marisa López Teijón, who established the programme, estimated that there are some 30,000 frozen embryos stored at fertility clinics in Spain.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1426877,00.html