Exploring the ‘lived experiences’ of egg share donors: can women consent to share their eggs?

Berenice GoldingPhD Student

Egg sharing

• An egg share donor can get discounted in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment if she agrees to share “her eggs with up to two recipients. Her treatment is subsidised by the recipient(s) of her eggs” (Blyth & Golding, 2008, p. 466).

• Donors might also access treatment more expeditiously, alleviating the need to wait for publicly-funded National Health Service (NHS) treatment.

The debates...

• Advocates of egg sharing view it as an altruistic act.

• It also helps to alleviate the paucity of donor eggs in the United Kingdom (UK).

• Whereas, critics claim that egg sharing is unethical because women's consent is fettered by:

– The excessive inducement of cheaper and quicker treatment.

– There is also a belief that egg sharing represents a trade in human eggs.

The study

• The study used hermeneutical phenomenology to explore the ‘lived experiences’ of egg share donors.

• It focused on their motivations to egg share, and their giving of informed consent.

• The study found that there were a number of factors that influenced the decision to egg share.

Decision-making

• Factors that influenced decision-making were:

– Access to cheaper treatment.

– The ability to circumvent lengthy waiting lists for access to publicly-funded NHS treatment.

– Being able to help someone (who they identified as) being in a similar situation to themselves.

– The ‘postcode lottery’ of access to fertility treatments.

Cont’d...

• Notably, for the majority of participants in this study, egg sharing represented their only option as they attempted to alleviate their involuntary childlessness.

• A factor that reinforced the notion posited by English who suggests that:

– For those who desperately want children but cannot afford to pay for treatment, egg sharing represents their only option. Where there is such a large inducement to donate eggs, questions must be raised about the validity of the consent and whether it meets the requirement that, in order to be valid, consent must be given voluntarily and free from pressure. (English, 2005, p.37827).

Conclusions

• Women consenting to egg share did so willingly in this study, although the implications of their decision to donate were not fully evident until after the arrangement had taken place.

• A successful outcome for both donor and recipient raised questions for the donor regarding the child(ren) born to the recipient.

• Conversely, donors experienced mixed psychological emotions following unsuccessful treatment. This led them to question whether they would have been successful if they had retained all of their eggs.

Recommendations

• This study identified issues surrounding the counselling process. It highlighted the need for specialised psycho-social support and implications counselling.

• This should be given prior to, during, and after the egg sharing arrangement has taken place.

References

• Blyth, E and Golding, B. (2008) Egg sharing – a practical and ethical option in IVF? Expert Review of Obstetrics & Gynecology 3(4): 465-473.

• English V. (2005) 'Egg sharing' affects validity of a woman's consent. Bionews. 329. [online] Available at: http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_37827.asp . [Accessed 20th April 2006].