Human Egg Giveaway Sparks Ethical Controversy

(March 18) -- An American fertility clinic's decision to host a giveaway of eggs for in vitro fertilization treatment has renewed an ongoing international debate over a complicated, and highly personal, ethical matter.

The Genetics & IVF Institute (GIVF), based in Fairfax, Va., offered one free in vitro cycle, using donated American eggs, to a randomly selected participant at a fertility seminar that was held Wednesday in London.

A similar procedure would run around $23,000 for paying clients.

At the heart of the dispute is a fundamental difference in how the U.S. and U.K. handle infertility treatments. Women here are paid for donating eggs, while those in the U.K. are not. The result is a shortage of eggs overseas but enough to go around in the U.S. -- for a lofty fee.

In this instance, the donor received around $6,000 for her donated eggs, the GIVF said. The company has been offering giveaways of in vitro fertilization rounds to American clients for several years.

A similar event held by a U.K. fertility organization would be illegal, and British health experts and bioethicists are slamming the GIVF giveaway as a shameless publicity stunt.

"There's something shocking in the association of a raffle and giving away a human product," Dr. Francoise Shenfield, a fertility and medical ethics expert at University College London, told The Associated Press. "In Europe, we have the general idea that altruism is a good thing."

Payment for egg donation is not only frowned upon in Europe -- it's illegal. Women can be compensated only for travel time and missed work, with an amount that varies by country. In the U.K., the limit is $384.

Egg donation takes about a month to complete. Donors undergo hormone injections and a painful, potentially dangerous extraction procedure before the eggs are combined with sperm and then implanted.

GIVF officials say they're just using a creative promotion strategy to offer a service, much as they have in the U.S. for years.

"The idea that we are raffling off an egg is just not the case," Harvey J. Stern, director of reproductive genetics at the Fairfax clinic, told the AP. "That's just sensationalist."

Indeed, American fertility companies are no strangers to in vitro giveaways. The GIVF said it's given away seven treatments in recent years, and a Minnesota-based clinic has been doing it once a year for a decade.

But the freebies are only a fraction of the procedures done each year. U.S. clinics performed nearly 150,000 rounds of in vitro treatments in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And a growing number are being paid for by Europeans, tired of the long wait lists back home.

More than 100 people showed up for the GIVF's latest giveaway. But no matter how willing hopeful couples are, some are denouncing the clinic and warning that a sensitive medical practice is morphing into a lucrative, profit-hungry industry.

"If you commodify body parts, including reproductive materials, who's going to be selling them? It's going to be the poor. And who's going to be buying them? It's going to be rich people," Jonathan D. Moreno, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist, told The Washington Post.

"You're gradually going down a slippery slope that not only undermines respect for certain body parts but eventually whole bodies of, say, people who are very old or very sick or very poor," he said.

While the U.S. continues to be the go-to destination for European couples with money to spare, they might want to consider relocating to Canada. The Quebec government announced plans this week to offer free in vitro treatments for those who can't conceive.

"Even internationally, few societies are as advanced as ours is regarding the coverage of these services in the public sector," Health Minister Yves Bolduc said at a press conference.

The initiative will cost the province's taxpayers an estimated $80 million a year.