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How Agencies Market Egg Donation on the Internet: A Qualitative Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Jason Keehn ,
Eve Howell ,
Mark V. Sauer  and
Robert Klitzman
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Extract

Oocyte donation has been used to treat human infertility for nearly 30 years, and remains particularly popular in helping women of advanced reproductive age, yet it also poses ethical concerns. Due to increasing demand and undersupply of available oocyte (or egg) donors, a niche business has developed in which “agencies” assist physician practices in advertising, recruiting, screening and even “matching” donors to recipients in need of such services. The advent of the Internet has increased the number and visibility of these services, creating a market in which programs bid for women perceived as having desired traits and superior pedigrees. A few questionable ethical aspects of these agencies have been examined by ourselves and others, including patterns of monetary compensation that directly conflict with the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's (ASRM) ethical guidelines, but many questions remain unexamined.

For-profit agencies that recruit and often match egg donors with intended parents exist alongside licensed, professional fertility clinics that actually perform the medical procedures.

Type
Independent
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , Autumn 2015 , pp. 610 - 618
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2015

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