The head of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the Government’s fertility watchdog, said today that egg and sperm donors could be paid in order to halt the number of infertile couples travelling abroad for treatment.
Professor Lisa Jardine said the national shortage of donors in the UK was forcing childless British couples to travel abroad as ‘fertility tourists’. In her interview with The Times she said:
‘I’m not saying the decision arrived at before I became chair wasn't the right one at the time. But given the evidence that egg shortage is driving women overseas, I feel a responsibility to look at it again.
‘My agenda is to try and keep assisted reproduction within our regulated area, not because I’m bossy, but out of concern for patient welfare,’ she added.
According to the newspaper, the number of treatment cycles using donated eggs fell by 25 per cent between 2004 and 2006; the number of women using donated sperm fell by 30 per cent.
The current legislation outlaws payments over £250. Professor Jardine says that giving donors a payment beyond the £250 in expenses would help to overcome the problems created by a shortage of donors.
HFEA is also planning to review the issue of donations between generations, such as the case of a 72-year-old British man who donated sperm to his daughter-in-law, and the Canadian Melanie Brown who froze eggs for her 7-year old daughter Flavie, who has a rare condition that could affect her fertility.
‘These are generous gestures, but we need to do some serious thinking about the social and psychological consequences,’ Professor Jardine said. ‘We know that when a child discovers she's not her sister's sister, but her sister's daughter, it can cause absolute crisis.’
The step of HFEA raises serious ethical questions about the motivation of donors and the potential impacts on the children born from paid donations. Critics also say that a ‘free market’ approach could mean that highly educated, young professional women will be able to charge higher rates for their eggs because of the assumed better quality of their genes. There are also concerns that high prices would exclude some childless couples and encourage poorer women to put their health at risk through the hormonal treatment and procedures needed to extract eggs.
Sources suggest that in countries that allow payment, such as, for example, the United States, Spain and Russia, young women often donate their eggs to clear debts or to fund university courses. In the United States, a 2007 study by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine found the US national average payment to women for egg donations was $4,216. The Society has recommended total payments to donors be capped at $10,000.
(See Reuters report)
Gedis Grudzinskas, a consultant gynaecologist and fertility consultant in Harley Street, said he expected donors in the UK to end up being paid between £1,000 and £5,000 a time.
However, Laura Witjens, chair of the National Gamete Donation Trust, said any plans similar to the American ‘eggs to the highest bidder’ model would have to be carefully scrutinised. She said:
‘In the US a Harvard graduate with blonde hair, long legs, straight teeth and blue eyes can get more money than a short, stocky girl in glasses who works in Wal-Mart. It is a problem because you are reducing human life to a commodity like buying a dress or a new pair of shoes.
‘The system needs to be looked at but we have to get the balance right. We run the risk of turning [donation] into a money-making exercise for young women who may not appreciate the health risks attached.
‘We live in a society where the importance of what we do is judged by how much we are paid. But how can you put a price tag on a baby?’
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