Exploring the

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

• Berenice Golding
• PhD Student

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Contd...

• 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).

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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.

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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.

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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.
•