Dubai clears 5,000 embryos on religious grounds

A fertility clinic in Dubai orders disposing of about 5,000 human embryos on religious grounds, an Emirati newspaper reported on Monday.

A 2008 federal law banned the storage of fertilized human eggs due to religion-based concerns over "mixing in the lineage" between families, the English-language Khaleej Times reported.

It did not elaborate but Islam calls for children to know the identity of their biological parents and to take their biological father's name.

Eggs can be fertilized outside the womb during In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), which produces excess fertilized eggs which can be frozen for future use.

An estimated 5,000 fertilized eggs are stored at the state-owned Dubai Gynaecology and Fertility Centre, the only center in the Gulf state allowed to perform IVF, Khaleej Times said.

Another 5,000 fertilized eggs are believed to be stored at al-Tawam Hospital in al-Ain, around 150 kilometers (95 miles) southeast of the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, the paper said.