frozen embryos given a chance

I spotted this today, and thought it classified as good-news news (as opposed to ordinary 'news' which is almost never 'good').

Couple receive embryos frozen for more than 15yrs

By DEIDRE MUSSEN - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 27 July 2008

Six embryos frozen for more than 15 years finally have a chance at life after an Auckland family donated them to an infertile couple desperately wanting a baby.

It is believed to be one of the longest periods of time that embryos have been frozen in New Zealand and later transplanted to try to create a baby.

The unique case challenges new fertility laws, which ban keeping embryos left over from in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment for more than a decade without an exemption.

The donor couple, who wanted to remain anonymous, adopted a son 16 years ago and had an IVF son in 1993. They decided they did not want more children but kept their 12 left-over embryos frozen at an Auckland fertility clinic. "When they asked what do you want to do with them, we realised these aren't just eggs, they're embryos. It means destroying them and after all we've gone through, you can't," the donor husband said... [click link in title to read full article]

Lovely to read of these frozen babies being given a chance, rather than just being 'thrown away'.