Patients' attitudes towards donation of surplus cryopreserved embryos for treatment or research

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was 2-fold: first, to investigate couples' reasons for not using cryopreserved embryos within the maximum storage period; second, to study their attitudes towards potential embryo donation for specific purposes. METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to 284 IVF/ICSI couples who experienced destruction of their cryopreserved embryos (n=1180) because the cryopreservation period exceeded the Danish legislative limit of 24 months. RESULTS: Seventy-four per cent of the couples responded. The main reasons for not utilizing surplus embryos was ‘successful delivery’ (85%), ‘consider family completed’ (61%) and ‘too short legislative limit for cryopreservation’ (59%). Sixty per cent of the couples agreed to the concept of donation of cryopreserved embryos for infertility research, 57% responded affirmatively to donation for stem cell research and 49% for stem cell treatment, but only 29% agreed to the concept of donation to infertile couples. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that delivery of a child after IVF treatment (OR 3.8, 95% CI 1.4–10.2) and female age