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The scandal of IVF league tables

By Sylvia Pagán Westphal

13 July 2002

LEAGUE tables listing the success rates of IVF clinics are encouraging bad practices such as implanting too many embryos, doctors have told Âé¶¹´«Ã½.

Multiple pregnancies are more dangerous for both mothers and babies, and improvements in IVF techniques mean it’s no longer necessary to implant several embryos to give a good chance of pregnancy. Yet at least half of clinics aren’t very good at IVF, says Jacques Cohen, director of the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of Saint Barnabas in New Jersey, so many boost their position in the tables published in the US and Britain by implanting…

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