FDA Says Embryo Bank Not Under its Jurisdiction

no. 330

Houston Chronicle
Associated Press
January 24, 2007

SAN ANTONIO — The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that a broker offering ready-made embryos to prospective parents does not fall under its jurisdiction.

An FDA spokeswoman in Dallas confirmed this month that the agency was investigating Jennalee Ryan's Abraham Center of Life but would not elaborate.

It was unclear what laws or regulations were the focus of the investigation.

An FDA statement Wednesday said that "the investigation determined that the facility was not currently engaged in practices that fall under FDA jurisdiction."

"Embryo" Bank Stirs Ethics Fears

no. 323

On Saturday, January 6, 2006, Washington Post ran a story regarding the Abraham Center of Life, based out of San Antonio, TX, discussing the Center's advertising that they are offering the world's "First Human Embryo Bank" for couples dealing with infertility issues. Articles regarding this facility have popped up now and again and it is no surprise that with the last few weeks worth of Katrina Clark stories, Mary Cheney stories, and cloned food stories that this one is trotted out again.

The reporter, Rob Stein, hits all the relevant issues and does note that ethically the service provided is similar to what is currently available in that couples or individuals can now arrange for donor sperm and donor eggs separately and that ethically that has not amounted to the same level of interest that the Abraham Center engenders.

My only comments are, echoing again the authors, that where an individual / couple arrange for DI and DE they are the ones choosing the combination as opposed to the Abraham Center making the choice for commercial reasons as to what combinations they believe individuals / couples woud want. While it is clear that when individuals make the choice they are doing so for their own personal reasons here it does begin to make the line grayer than it already is.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding the service provided by the Abraham Center but so far this is my understanding of what it means to offer the World's First Human Embryo Bank. A copy of the Post article will be posted in the Annex to this blog.