Arthur Caplan, director of the Center of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, believes that ethically, doctors must do whatever they can to prevent multiple births.
"I have long argued that nobody should be putting more than four embryos into any woman because of the high risk of super multiple pregnancies which are hugely dangerous to newborns," said Caplan.
"We know that usually every one of these cases has the kids in a neonatal unit, that disability and learning disorders are common and death can even occur," he said. "In my view, the ethical thing to do is to control against the possibly of super multiples occurring."
But unlike in many European countries, where the number of embryos that can be implanted in women is kept to a maximum of three, the U.S. has no such regulation, said Caplan. That makes it harder for doctors to resist parents who want as many embryos as possible implanted.
Even without new guidelines, insurers could help reduce multiples, he added.
"If insurance companies would say that they won't pay for complications resulting from transfers beyond four at time -– that would have teeth," Caplan said. "People are doing it because some insurance companies will say they'll only pay for two cycles, which leaves people to transfer multiple embryos at a time because they think it's their only shot."
Occasionally parents have moral objections against freezing embryos and not using all of them, leading them to argue that all of them should be implanted. Once high numbers of embyos are implanted and become viable, patients often also have moral reasons not to cull or selectively reduce them.
In addition to more specific guidelines by professional medical organizations to inform parents of the risks of high-multiple births, Caplan says he'd like to see insurance cover more IVF treatments with a limit on the number of embryos that can be transferred.
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
