IN SPITE OF PROTESTS, BRITAIN TO DESTROY 3,000 EMBRYOS TODAY.

Byline: Youssef M. Ibrahim The New York Times

Britain plans to destroy more than 3,000 unclaimed human embryos from fertility clinics today, in keeping with a law that has stirred horror and religious outrage among some segments of society and ethical and practical questions as well.

The microscopic eggs were fertilized in vitro and frozen. The frozen embryos, consisting of four cells each, would not develop further unless they were implanted into a woman's uterus. Unless their donors ask to have the embryos saved, any that have been stored for five years will be destroyed.

The embryos are being stored in 33 clinics, which were scheduled to begin to remove them from freezing containers sometime after midnight Wednesday, allowing them to thaw, and then administering a few drops of alcohol to destroy them, officials of the Fertilization and Embryology Authority said. The embryos then will be incinerated.

Although embryos have been destroyed before, this is the first time such a procedure has been required by law and carried out on such a large scale. The newness of it all, combined with the delicate issues involved, have inspired suggestions ranging from the ``adoption'' of the embryos to a demand that they be given ``a proper funeral.''

The action is ordered under the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act, which became effective Aug. 1, 1991, and stipulated the five-year time limit. As the deadline crept up, the once-quiet debate quickly became public and dramatic.

Some officials in the Catholic Church have referred to the event as ``a prenatal massacre.''

Italian doctors have offered to pay to ``adopt'' the embryos, with the intention of having them transferred to Italy and implanted there. Anti-abortion groups have appealed to Prime Minister John Major for a six-month delay.

At a press conference Wednesday, John Scarisbrick a spokesman for Life Campaigns, a British anti-abortion group, called today ``a day of national shame,'' arguing that letters that went out in the past 10 weeks to the egg and sperm donors of the embryos warning of the action failed to explain other options, including offering them for adoption.

But a spokeswoman for the Health Ministry said Wednesday that, come midnight, ``under present laws and guidance on patient consent, nothing can be done but for those embryos to be allowed to perish.''

The embryos scheduled for destruction are part of a total ranging from 6,000 to 10,000 that were fertilized and frozen since 1991 but whose donors have failed to respond to inquiries about what they wished done with them.

Of those who did respond, some donors asked that their embryos continue to be preserved. Many opted for destruction, which was done quietly before the deadline came up, but clinics refuse to give actual numbers.

In the United States, Dr. Joseph D. Schulman, director of the Genetics and IVF Institute in Fairfax, Va., a large private infertility center, said that while certain states might have laws that apply to different embryo storage situations, there is no national policy on what becomes of unclaimed embryos in the United States.