Embryos in limbo

A 2003 survey of fertility clinics finding that perhaps 400,000 embryos had accumulated in storage in the United States shocked doctors and the public. This number far exceeded the previous estimates of 30,000 to 200,000 frozen embryos. Such a large and growing store of embryos was extremely problematic for any number of reasons. Doctors were alarmed by the prospect of finding themselves responsible for storing embryos indefinitely. Others were troubled by the ghoulishness of keeping embryos frozen for years on end. Some medical researchers viewed the store of frozen embryos as an untapped resource for embryonic stem cell research. The New Atlantis