Many American women feel frustrated with the usual options available for the disposal of unused embryos created with their eggs following fertility treatments, according to a study published in the Dec. 4 online edition of Fertility and Sterility.

Of course, couples undergoing fertility treatment don’t seem to think very much about what will be done with the remained embryos at the time they choose such an option. However, once the treatment is complete, patients commonly face the decision of what to do with the frozen embryos they don’t plan to use.

“This really turns our moral presumptions on their heads. Parents care very much about what happens to their embryos, but that doesn't mean they want them to become children. Our study shows that many feel they have to do what they can to prevent their embryo from becoming a child,” says Anne Drapkin Lyerly, MD, an obstetrician/gynecologist and bioethicist at Duke, and lead investigator of the study.

The study involved 1,020 women who had frozen embryos in storage at nine fertility clinics who were surveyed in 2006 and 2007. It showed that 41 percent of patients who had finished fertility treatment would seriously consider donating their embryos for stem cell research, 12 percent preferred to discard the embryos while only 16 percent said they would be willing to donate the unused embryos to another couple, the sole option that would avoid destroying them. About half of the women said they were "very likely" to use the frozen embryos in future pregnancy attempts. Many couples simply leave the embryos in storage, paying fees indefinitely. A study released in 2003 estimated that about half a million of frozen embryos remained on ice in the US.

"People really didn't like their options very much," Lyerly said.