British Fertility Society Statement on Egg
Donation
21 February 2007
"The British Fertility Society recognised the importance of
undertaking basic research on human eggs in order to understand
the causes of infertility and also to facilitate research in regenerative
medicine. Because of this, we consulted our membership at the time
of the consultation and fed our response back to the HFEA.
"The response of our members was that women should have the
right as autonomous individuals to give informed consent for procedures
which may yield great benefit to society. However, many members
are concerned about eggs obtained during a woman's IVF treatment
being donated to projects of research as part of an egg sharing
arrangement for which they receive Benefits in Kind.
"Whilst members feel more comfortable with such donations
being made to another infertile woman, they see a distinction between
this and donating to projects of research. The BFS therefore supports
the concept of non- patient donors being able to make donations
to research, but our members have mixed views on this being done
by women who are patients themselves."
Dr Allan Pacey, Senior Lecturer at the University
of Sheffield and Secretary of the British Fertility Society.
For more information: please contact the British Fertility Society press office
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