Challenges in intra-family donation

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139026390.010

10 - Challenges in intra-family donation

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012

Effy Vayena and

Edited by

Guido Pennings and

Martin Richards: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Guido Pennings: Affiliation:
Universiteit Gent, Belgium
John B. Appleby: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

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Summary

Definition and prevalence

Intra-family donation is gamete donation between family members of various degrees of blood or kin relationship. Most intra-family donation involves intra-generational donation between siblings or cousins, most commonly egg donation between sisters or sisters-in-law. Less frequently there is intergenerational donation: usually father to son, daughter to mother or niece to aunt.

There is little data on the prevalence of intra-family donation. Surveys conducted in North America report only the types of intra-family donation that are accepted in the participating centres but provide no information on the number of requests or actual procedures performed (Marshall, 2002; ASRM Ethics Committee Report, 2003). Similarly, the International Committee on Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ICMART), which collects data from national IVF registers, does not collect data on specific types of donation. In the early days of IVF egg donors tended to be known. Some US fertility experts advocated sister-to-sister donation rather than anonymous donation (Lessor, 1993). Studies at that time reported positive attitudes towards egg donation by sisters among infertile couples (Sauer, 1988) and the broader public (Lessor, et al., 1990).

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Reproductive Donation
Practice, Policy and Bioethics
, pp. 168 - 188

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139026390.010 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2012

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