IVF parents prefer to stay mum about treatment

Two thirds of children born as a result of embryos donated by other people will never be told about their biological background, a study predicted yesterday. British researchers found infertile couples who use donated embryos are less likely to be truthful about their children's origins than adoptive parents or those who are treated with their own embryos.

Two thirds of children born as a result of embryos donated by other people will never be told about their biological background, a study predicted yesterday. British researchers found infertile couples who use donated embryos are less likely to be truthful about their children's origins than adoptive parents or those who are treated with their own embryos.

Embryo donation can also cause parents to become defensive and too attached to their children, the experts warned at the meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology.

Conventional IVF uses the couple's sperm and eggs, or sometimes a donated sample, depending on where the infertility problem lies. But in cases where this is not possible, couples can resort to using donated embryos discarded by other people's fertility treatment.

The process means the woman will be impregnated and give birth, but neither she nor her partner will be the biological parents of the child.

Psychologists at City University, London, questioned 21 parents of embryo donation children, 28 adoptive families and 30 couples who conceived through conventional IVF. They found that 90 per cent of the IVF couples and 100 per cent of the adoptive parents planned to tell their children the truth about their origins, but only 30 per cent of the embryo donation families intended to.