Reproductive medicine guidelines called effective

A study notes a decline in multiple births suggests that further regulation of assisted reproduction is not needed.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. May 10, 2004.

On the heels of a report from the President's Council on Bioethics calling for more self-regulation in the medical field of assisted reproduction, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicinesuggested not only is the field already engaging in self-regulation, but it's working.

Specifically, the study noted that since the American Society for Reproductive Medicine issued guidelines in 1998 aimed at lowering the number of multiple births created by assisted reproduction embryo-transfer techniques, the percentage of pregnancies with three or more fetuses has "significantly decreased."

"It looked like it [the decrease] was at least associated with recent changes in the guidelines," said Mark D. Hornstein, MD, one of the study's authors and director of the division of reproductive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston.

Dr. Hornstein and the study's lead author, Tarun Jain, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said the study was not a reply to the bioethics council's March report, "Reproduction and Responsibility: The Regulation of New Biotechnologies."

"The timing turned out to be serendipitous but advantageous to the body of work getting noticed," Dr. Jain said.