Allowing two proposed changes to fertility treatment practices could help infertile cancer sufferers have babies and help treat rare diseases, an advisory group to the Ministry of Health says.
The Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (Acart) today called for public submissions on the two proposed treatments, both of which are currently not allowed in New Zealand.
The first proposal would allow women who have frozen their own eggs before undergoing cancer treatment to use those eggs to create embryos and, if successful, give birth.
When the practice was last reviewed in 2005 the use of frozen eggs was considered too risky because of a lack of information surrounding the new technology.
However, Acart said the record of cases in the last three years had changed expert opinion, and it now believed it was safe to proceed with the treatment.
The second proposal would allow women to screen their embryos so, once the baby is born, umbilical cord stem cells could be used to treat non-inherited disease in close family.
The use of umbilical cord blood from babies is approved for families with genetic disorders, but the proposed change would extend the treatment to some rare non-genetic diseases such as leukaemia.
Submissions on the proposals close on September 5.
NZPA