To better understand the risks of in vitro fertilization, the health ministry will study the impact of artificial insemination on the development of children from birth to age 6 with a survey later this fiscal year of around 8,000 children conceived through the method, ministry officials said Tuesday.
Rising infertility rates and more women giving birth later in life are pushing up the number of in vitro fertilizations. In 2004, an estimated 18,000 babies were conceived via the method in Japan.
Critics say the in vitro method — in which an egg is removed from a woman's ovary, fertilized with sperm and then placed in the womb — may cause multiple pregnancies that could pose risks to the woman's health or increase the likelihood of birth defects.