The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has blocked what would have been the nation's first attempt to use in vitro fertilization in the cases of two couples who are both infected with HIV, despite approval by Ogikubo Hospital in Tokyo in January last year, sources close to the issue said Saturday.

Though hospital ethics committee approved the reproduction treatment plan, the ministry has asked the hospital to postpone implementation, saying more deliberation and ethical examination was necessary. In other countries, views are divided over whether reproductive assistance should be offered to couples in similar circumstances.

In a rare move, a ministry study panel contemplating the issue will hold a public hearing July 28 to examine whether to approve the treatment and to devise guidelines for similar, future cases.

Hideji Hanabusa, vice president of Ogikubo Hospital, and his team of doctors have developed a method to remove the virus that causes AIDS from sperm.

Using the procedure, in vitro fertilization has been implemented in the cases of couples in which only the husbands were infected with HIV, at institutions such as Keio University and Niigata University.

So far, 65 babies have been born through this method, and all the mothers and children have remained HIV-free. Given the successful track record, Ogikubo Hospital considered applying the method in the cases of two couples in which both the mother and father are infected with HIV.

The husbands of both couples became infected with HIV through tainted blood products, and their viruses are highly reproductive or resistant to AIDS-treatment drugs.

It is possible if the couples conceive their babies via normal sexual intercourse, the wives, with less quantities of the AIDS virus and whose immune systems have been stabilized, would be reinfected by their husbands' more virulent virus, resulting in worsened health conditions.

But if the couples' medical conditions deteriorate enough, both parents potentially could die before their children reach adulthood.

In 2004, a special committee of medical experts, mainly from the European Union, issued a recommendation that such reproductive medicine be limited to cases in which only the husband or wife is HIV-positive.

The committee recommended that at least one member of such a couple be responsible for raising a child until adulthood.

However, a British researcher argued future conditions widely varied among HIV-infected people, and that barring such couples from the in vitro treatment option would lower their quality of life.

Katsumi Ohira, director of Habataki Welfare Project, a Tokyo-based foundation for people infected with HIV through tainted medicines, said: "The most important thing is not to create new tragedies. It's necessary to discuss who should be deemed responsible if babies are infected."

In addition, support for such children would be essential if both parents die of AIDS before offspring reach adulthood. Ohira said: "Social welfare assistance would also be necessary. If the course of treatment is implemented, it should proceed while consensus is obtained from the broader society."

The public hearing will be held in the east wing building of Keio University's School of Medicine in the Shinanomachi district of central Tokyo, starting at 1 p.m. on July 28.

This is cache, read story here

Posted in login to post comments