Seamus Burns considers the legal and ethical dilemmas of egg donation
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) agreed in February to allow women to donate their eggs for research purposes. The chief executive of HFEA, Angela McNab, commenting on this significant change of policy in a statement on 21 February 2007, said that HFEA had only agreed to this change of policy “provided that there are strong safeguards in place to ensure the women are properly informed of the risks of the procedure, and are properly protected from coercion”. The decision to donate should be prompted primarily by altruism and not motivated by the desire to be financially rewarded, and axiomatically needs to be a voluntary decision. As McNab added:
“Women will not be paid for donating their eggs. Researchers will have to follow the same system as donation for treatment; donors can only claim back the expenses that they have actually incurred. There has never been any question of women receiving payment for donating their eggs for research at any stage of our deliberations.”
LEGAL ISSUES
The general prohibition on buying
