American Experience

Concerns About IVF Babies' Long-Term Health

Robert George: There’s a health concern, about what, in the long term, physical consequences of IVF conception will be… We all breathed a sigh of relief when Louise Brown was born and was healthy, or at least appeared to be healthy. It seemed at the time as though the concerns that IVF might be risky from a health vantage point had been misplaced. But now that the cohort of children originally conceived by IVF has entered its late twenties and early thirties, the anecdotal evidence is beginning to pile up that there are long-term health consequences, negative health consequences of IVF conceptions. Now, we don’t know whether that can be rigorously demonstrated. As I say, we only have anecdotal evidence. But it’s critically important that we do the studies that will enable us to know whether in fact, over the long term, there are higher rates of disease, morbidity, among children conceived in IVF. It’s very important for the future that potential parents who are contemplating the use of in vitro fertilization know what the potential health risks, if any, are for the children whom they will conceive.

Arthur Caplan: I think the field ducked the issue [of safety] in part because they didn’t do long-term follow-up studies. They basically said, “These babies look fine.” I remember Steptoe and Edwards sort of displaying Louise Brown around and saying, “Look, all her parts are here. She’s happy. Safety, not a big deal. We’ve got a technique that’s going to work.” But that didn’t prove that there wasn’t premature death or unusual amounts of morbidity in these kids. And I don’t think the field ever really did demonstrate its safety the way it should have.