IVF treatments involve creating many embryos, the great majority of whom are discarded. Most IVF implantations fail, other embryos are put into frozen storage for a maximum of 5 years in Victoria, after which those who are not wanted by their parents are thrown away. These are known as "excess embryos".

Some 'spare' embryos are made available for destructive research. Some are destroyed because pre-implantation tests have found an abnormality (this could just mean that an embryo is a boy and the couple are carriers or a male-linked condition such as haemophilia).

There are also cases of 'selective reduction' with multiple IVF pregnancies where unwanted babies are killed by abortion.

This means that IVF always involves the death of very small human beings who, having been deliberately created, are unfairly denied their right to be born.

For the same reason we at Right to Life Australia oppose destructive embryonic stem cell research. In Australia, the 'excess' human beings harvested for IVF are now experimented on for the purposes of 'science'. It is necessary to kill the human embryo in this type of research, and there can be no justification for killing people on the grounds of 'scientific pursuit'.

It is possible to do extensive research on 'adult stem cell' lines, and these experiments do not end human life. Right to Life Australia encourages ethical research, in the very promising areas of extracted umbilical cord cells and adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cell research has provided scant results, remembering that the 'investment' has been thousands of innocent lives. This is unacceptable, and should immediately stop.