The medical
director of one of the fertility clinics has said it is time to end
"muddled thinking" on egg donation and pay donors.
Dr John
Waterstone, medical director of Cork Fertility Centre, made his comments ahead
of an international egg donation seminar in Cork this weekend.
The free
seminar at the River Lee Hotel focused on egg donation, the process in which
the eggs of a younger woman are substituted for the woman’s own eggs.
However,
while sperm donors receive money, in Ireland and much of Europe, women who
donate eggs do not, leading many to travel to countries such as Spain and the
Czech Republic where payment is made.
The Cork
Fertility Clinic has formed a link with the US-based Shady Grove Fertility
Clinic, the latter offering a money-back system if clients do not become
pregnant after a certain point in the process.
Dr
Waterstone said clinics paid egg donors for participating in what he said was a
comprehensive process takes a number of weeks, whereas in Europe payment for
egg donation was “frowned upon”.
“The
thinking in Europe is muddled,” he said of the “reluctance” to pay egg donors.
“It has been this accepted view.”
He said the
attitude was “not coherent” precisely because women from countries where
payment is not made can travel to countries where they are paid for donating.
However,
that level of payment, understood to be around €1,000, is much less than the
amount paid by American clinics.
Dr
Waterstone also said that in Europe there was less transparency regarding
success rates in clinics, unlike in the US.
As for the
number of Irish women likely to be travelling to clinics overseas, he said:
“It’s very common. We can assume it is getting more prevalent.”
Dr
Waterstone said while there was criticism about the “commercial” nature of egg
donation in the US, the only reason he could think for not making payment for
egg donation would be the chance that a client might choose not to disclose
some aspect of family medical history.
However, to
counter that argument, he said any woman undergoing egg donation had to
participate in a thorough process that takes several weeks to complete.
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