Embryonic Stem Cell Researchers Competing With Fertility Clinics For Egg Donations, NPR Reports

Main Category: Fertility
Also Included In: Stem Cell Research
Article Date: 08 May 2006 - 9:00 PDT

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NPR's "Morning Edition" on Wednesday examined how stem cell researchers are competing with fertility clinics for human egg donations. Although there has not yet been a significant demand for human eggs for research purposes, the "promise of embryonic stem cells may change that," according to NPR. Fertility clinics, which always are seeking egg donors, can "offer powerful incentives" in the form of financial compensation, which, "at least for now," women who donate eggs for research cannot not receive because "most of the guidelines that have been drawn up for stem cell research forbid paying women for donating their eggs," according to NPR. In addition, women who donate their eggs for research will not receive the emotional reward of helping infertile couples conceive, according to Kelly Rugola, who recruits women to donate eggs at Shady Grove Fertility Center in Rockville, Md. However, a woman who has donated eggs to a clinic says that the promise of assisting stem cell researchers in finding cures for diseases is enough incentive to undergo the process of egg donation, which includes health screenings, hormone injections and surgery to harvest the eggs. The NPR segment includes comments from Alison Murdoch, chair of the British Fertility Society and a fertility expert at the Centre for Life in Newcastle, England; Rugola; Christopher Shaw, neuroscientist at the Institute of Psychiatry in London; and a woman who donated eggs to a fertility clinic (Palca, "Morning Edition," NPR, 5/3).

The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.

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