A fertility clinic was ordered to discontinue its embryo screening procedures after an inspection found a series of critical faults in its laboratory management, training and use of equipment that included using a device for egg collection that was known to be defective, reports the Irish Independent.

Embyro screening more generally is seen by critics as a form of eugenics.

‘First IVF’, based in Clane, Co Kildare, was the subject of a heightened inspection regime from the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) from June 2022 up to last October after inspection reports in April 2021 and July 2022 found a series of major problems.

An inspection report on First IVF finalised in July 2022 by the HPRA, obtained under Freedom of Information Act, found 35 critical deficiencies in its management and handling of embryo biopsies. The report is by far the most serious released by the HPRA since the Independent began publishing fertility clinic inspection reports completed since 2018.