Report to the Director-General of Health on the Risks and Benefits Associated with Assisted Reproductive Technologies

Report to the Director-General of Health on the Risks and Benefits Associated with Assisted Reproductive Technologies
The Advisory Group on Assisted Reproductive Technologies

Date of publication: June 2005

ISBN 0-478-28387-3 (Book)
ISBN 0-478-28388-1 (Internet)
HP 4117

The Advisory Group on Assisted Reproductive Technologies (AGART) was convened in June 2004 to provide the Director-General of Health with an assessment of the risks and benefits associated with assisted reproductive procedures.

AGART reviewed the existing available evidence and also commissioned a systematic review. The existing evidence suggested an increased risk of major birth defects associated with assisted reproductive technologies.

AGART considered the increased risks to be acceptable as they are not greatly increased above those for the general population and in general the procedures offer benefits to those parent who might not otherwise conceive children naturally. There is also a link between ART and poorer neonatal and maternal health outcomes, but some of this can be attributed to maternal age and infertility.

While acknowledging that it considers the majority of risks associated with these procedures to be acceptable, AGART considers it essential for information on the health of children born as a result of ART to be collected on an ongoing basis. AGART makes suggestions in this report as to how this might be done.

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You can download the full text of this report below in Word and PDF formats.

AGART Report (Word, 867 kB)

AGART Report (PDF, 490 kB)

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