The Japan Society of Fertility and Sterility has decided to start freezing sperm and eggs of unmarried cancer patients who fear they will become sterile as a side effect of the treatment for the disease, society members said Saturday.

To date, cryogenic storage of such cells has only been performed for infertile couples, they said.

While there are moral problems involved in keeping sperm and egg cells frozen, society members said there are many cases in which unmarried individuals undergoing cancer therapy still hope to have children.

Yukihiro Nagata, who heads the society's ethics committee, said the new measure will cover unmarried people whose reproductive capacity may be destroyed due to surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, as well as those who experience some disorder that remains after such treatment.

According to the society, adult applicants must give their consent to the procedure, while juvenile applicants will need the consent of parents or guardians.

The society said storage periods for infertile couples normally range from several months to a year, but they may be longer for cancer patients.

They added they will inform society members, who are doctors at maternity clinics, of the decision through an edition of the society's academic journal to be published next month. Preservation of sperm is widely practiced. Due to recent progress in cryogenic technology, the freezing of unfertilized eggs has now also become possible and there have been cases reported of births from artificial insemination using frozen fertilized eggs.