Egg giving is a practice that has only surfaced in recent years, most notably in the UK.
It involves a couple who intend undertaking IVF for the first time. In effect a reduced fee is negotiated for subsequent cycles if all the eggs or the first cycle are donated to (an)other couple(s).
The UK’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA – RTAC is the Australian equivalent) has moved to “outlaw” this practice. Interestingly it was not an ethical issue that motivated the HFEA but rather “ The HFEA cannot allow clinics to offer a treatment where a woman for no other reason than financial inducement, subjects herself to an unnecessary and possibly risky procedure” and further “Although the risk to IVF patients of suffering OHSS is low, about one percent, patients taking part in egg giving programmes run this risk twice because they have to have two cycles of treatment”
Interestingly the HFEA has not outlawed altruistic egg donation, just egg donation for financial gain or egg donation for payment in kind.
BioNews - 2004
Click here for more news items | 
23-May-05 Egg Giving
