Test tube fears

New safety fears have been raised about a controversial IVF technique. It has
already been claimed that intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) doubles the
risk of birth defects
(This Week, 22 November 1997, p 5). Now a team led by
Jennifer Bowen of the University of Sydney says that children conceived by ICSI
have “mild delays” in their mental development when they are one year old (
The Lancet, vol 351, p 1529). However, another study published in the same
issue (p 1553) found no similar effect for a group of two-year-old children.