Advances in oocyte cryopreservation technology will eventually blur the ethical and moral boundaries between compensated egg sharing and commercialized oocyte donation

Abstract

Compensated egg sharing was originally conceived as a patient self-help co-operative scheme to avoid overt 'commodification' of donor oocytes and prevent doctors and medical institutions from acting as 'brokers' of donated human material. As such, egg sharing is an ethically justifiable and much-preferred alternative to commercialized oocyte donation. However, recent advances in oocyte cryopreservation technology are likely to blur the ethical and moral boundaries between compensated egg sharing and commercialized oocyte donation. The banking of cryopreserved oocytes would negate the requirement for donors and recipients in egg sharing to have co-ordinated and synchronized treatment cycles. Instead, fertility doctors and medical institutions can now offer subsidized fertility treatment upfront to any patient willing to donate a portion of her retrieved cohort of oocytes for banking and subsequent donation. Thus, more opportunity is now open for them to act as 'middle-man' to broker the transaction of oocytes between donor and recipient, which would inevitably result in overt 'commodification' of donated human material. Administrative and processing fees will definitely be billed to prospective recipients, for banking and storage of the cryopreserved oocytes, which would mean that a direct profit can now be made from the transaction of oocytes between donor and recipient.