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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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1990-09-19
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NATION, Page 44A Tragic Side Effect
Another casualty of the Administration's pro-life offensive is
Government support for research on in-vitro fertilization, in which
eggs are extracted from a woman's ovaries, fertilized in a glass
dish, then implanted in the donor's womb. Next week a House
subcommittee will release a report charging that the Department of
Health and Human Services has shied away from funding research on
"test-tube fertilization" because of pressure from right-to-life
groups. As a consequence, the discovery of new techniques to make
the procedure more reliable and lower its cost (currently $6,000
for each attempted fertilization) must depend on uncertain private
financing.
The Administration's hostility to in-vitro research is more
puzzling than its opposition to experiments with fetal tissue. The
goal of the technique is to assist infertile couples who want
children, an objective that seems to square with the President's
pro-family views. Opponents argue that since human life begins at
conception, the accidental but inevitable destruction of some
embryos during in-vitro fertilization is murder. The irony is that
in their zealous defense of the lives of "unborn children," the
foes of in-vitro fertilization are preventing other children from
ever being born.