Our report Fertility, Embryo Research and Genome Editing: Public Attitudes in Europe explores public attitudes to fertility treatment, embryo research, genome editing, donor conception, surrogacy and related topics in four European countries – the UK, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.
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In all four of the countries surveyed, a majority of respondents … answered either ‘Yes, definitely’ or ‘Yes, probably’ when asked whether the state should fund fertility treatment for people who are infertile and wish to conceive.
A substantial proportion of respondents in all four of the countries surveyed … did not support people undergoing private fertility treatment being able to choose the biological sex of their child …
However, younger respondents … were more likely than older respondents to say that sex selection should be permitted.
The survey asked respondents whether they supported or opposed the use of genome editing in human embryos, in the following three scenarios.
- In human embryos for scientific and medical research, to help understand or develop treatments for congenital disease. …
- In human embryos that will be transferred to a human womb to establish pregnancy, to help eliminate a severe or life-threatening condition – such as cystic fibrosis ….
- In human embryos that will be transferred to a human womb to establish pregnancy, to help eliminate a common, medically manageable condition – such as asthma ….
In all four of the countries surveyed, more respondents supported than opposed the use of genome editing in human embryos in all three of these scenarios.



















