The average European woman has her first child at almost 31, and fertility rates are dropping. Freezing eggs has become a safety net for the future. But what happens when this backup plan goes unused?
As EuroNews reports, many women who had their eggs frozen at a younger age end up getting pregnant naturally, find a partner later, or simply have their life plans change. At that point, a dilemma arises: what to do with the biological material waiting in liquid nitrogen at -196 °C? From a medical standpoint, it can last practically forever, but legally and emotionally, it's much more complicated.
While most people are clear about donating blood or plasma, strong emotions come into play with embryos. It's not just a cluster of cells; for many, it's a potential offspring and bearer of their DNA. Experts confirm that couples find it very difficult to give up their own embryos to other infertile couples.
It's a paradox—they prefer to destroy them or let them sit idle rather than live with the idea that their biological child is being raised by someone else. The willingness to donate increases only if donor eggs or sperm were used during fertilization.
The situation is complicated by the fact that Europe doesn't have unified rules. While in the UK, embryos can be stored for up to 55 years and then either donated or destroyed, Italy and Poland take a stricter approach.
In Italy, destroying embryos is banned, leading to the accumulation of thousands of “abandoned” samples without a future. Meanwhile, Poland mandates their donation to other couples after 20 years.
On the opposite end is Sweden, where unused embryos are ruthlessly discarded after ten years. Spain, a leader in assisted reproduction in Europe, is a unique case. Clinics there report tens of thousands of embryos with no one claiming them.
When patients stop communicating or paying for storage, clinics find themselves in a legal bind. The embryos remain in a “gray zone”—they technically exist, but no one knows what to do with them. This phenomenon clearly shows that 21st-century science has outpaced not only our laws but often our ability to tackle the ethical questions new technologies bring.
