Increased demand, compensation for egg donors in U.S.

The AP/Boston Globe on Monday examined how increased demand for egg donations and compensation for donors in the U.S. has prompted more young women to donate their eggs. According CDC data, about 10,000 women donated eggs to federally monitored programs in 2004, compared with 3,800 women in 1996.

The American Society of Reproductive Medicine has set a $5,000 compensation guideline for egg donation with a limit of $10,000 for special circumstances, such as the recipient wanting an egg of rare ancestry, but some egg brokers pay women more, according to the AP/Globe. Some women have said they donated eggs to help friends or relatives, but others have said the compensation was a "big factor" in the decision, the AP/Globe reports. The monetary compensation has caused concern among critics that egg donation might be "driv[ing] an unregulated market for human tissue," according to the AP/Globe. Jeffrey Kahn, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics, said, "We worry that we offer people so much money that they are blind to the risk and their motivation is strictly the money." David Grainger, president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, said that women would not pass the psychological screening required of all egg donors if they were volunteering only to receive the compensation (Irvine, AP/Boston Globe, 2/19).

U.K. Expected To Approve Compensation for Eggs Donated for Research
In related news, the United Kingdom's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority on Wednesday is expected to approve a policy that would allow women who donate their eggs for human embryonic stem cell research to receive about $487 and travel expenses, the United Kingdom's maximum compensation for egg and sperm donors, London's Observer reports. Currently, clinics can only accept donated eggs for research that are left over from an in vitro fertilization treatment or sterilization. Women who donate eggs will be required to show they have an altruistic reason to donate eggs, such as wanting to help a relative with one of the conditions that researchers are trying to treat through embryonic stem cell research, the Observer reports. According to the Observer, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's Ethics and Law Committee has recommended the policy change based on a 64-page report. The agency likely will say that by allowing women to donate eggs for scientific purposes, stem cell researchers will be able to find cures for heart problems, infertility, diabetes and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, the Observer reports. Some researchers during discussions about the proposal expressed concerns about such issues as the safety of egg removal. Some experts said that poor women could be persuaded to donate eggs for the money (Campbell, Observer, 2/18).