Dubai, February 22: A fertility clinic in Dubai is to begin next week disposing of about 5,000 human embryos on religious grounds, an Emirati newspaper reported on Monday.
A 2008 federal law banned the storage of fertilised human eggs due to religion-based concerns over “mixing in the lineage” between families, the English-language Khaleej Times said.
It did not elaborate but Islam calls for children to know the identity of their biological parents and to take their biological father’s name.
Eggs can be fertilised outside the womb during In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), which produces excess fertilised eggs which can be frozen for future use.
An estimated 5,000 fertilised eggs are stored at the state-owned Dubai Gynaecology and Fertility Centre, the only centre in the Gulf state allowed to perform IVF, Khaleej Times said.
Another 5,000 fertilised eggs are believed to be stored at Al-Tawam Hospital in Al-Ain, around 150 kilometres (95 miles) southeast of the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, the paper said.
It did not say what the fate of eggs at Al-Ain would be but the hospital would presumably also have to dispose of the eggs in its possession in line with federal law.
—Agencies