what do you do with the embryos that you're
not going to use well we have this problem already just through what's now old-fashioned IVF
because when couples go through i_v_f_ they produce large numbers of embryos generally they only implant or transfer several of them
so in the united states alone we believe there's about four hundred thousand excess embryos embryos in storage there's not much you can do with these embryos
you can either keep them in storage indefinitely which is what many people are choosing to
do you can destroy them which is something
which most people don't want to do you can transfer them but most people don't want to have necessarily that many children or you can use them for research and this
is where when we talk about human embryonic stem cells this is this is where the
stem cells would be coming from from these extra embryos so there is a a massive supply and there's certainly demand but there is now we actually have government regulation
this is not allowed
that's right
0:00:56.030,0:00:58.409
is it allowed internationally yes yes so the united states and there's
a huge paradox here whereas with regards to fertility the united states is something of
a wild west pretty much anything goes until that's right but with regards to stem cell research the
united states is one of the most restrictive countries in the world and basically stem cell research
is by no means illegal but the scientists who wanted to embryonic stem cell research can't
use federal funds this excerpt is brought to you by the massachusetts
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