Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich wants a commission to study the management of in vitro fertilization clinics, where infertile couples seek treatment to allow pregnancy and large numbers of leftover embryos are discarded or stored.

Gingrich says in vitro fertilization is the creation of life, and serious study is needed of the rules covering it.

The former House speaker made his comments to reporters outside the Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, where he had attended Sunday services.

Gingrich also says he opposes the use of leftover embryos for stem cell research, which advocates believe may lead to treatments or cures for a variety of diseases.

IVF involves creating an embryo outside a woman's body, then implanting it inside the womb. Excess embyros are believed to number in the hundreds of thousands.

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