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Latest Surrogacy News
Gynaecologist backs ban on donation of human eggs
Dec 1 2003 Robin Turner,
The Western Mail
A LEADING
Welsh gynaecologist has backed a ban on the donation of
human eggs for commercial interests.
Swansea-based Peter Bowen-Simpkins says he is delighted at
the ban imposed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology
Authority (HEFA).
The ban
effectively stops women going through more than one medical
procedure in order to donate eggs to another woman in
exchange for subsidising her own treatment.
Mr
Bowen-Simpkins is a member of the Royal College of
Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and helps to run the IVF
unit at Swansea's Singleton Hospital.
HEFA has
now banned a scheme which allowed women to have cheap IVF
treatment if they went through the fertility treatment twice
and agreed to donate half of their eggs.
The ban
however does not rule out women who want to give eggs to
others even when they are not undergoing fertility treatment
themselves.
Mr
Bowen-Simpkins said so-called "altruistic egg giving" was a
popular procedure and could help women in their late 30s and
40s conceive.
He said
it was particularly helpful when women were seeking to avoid
genetic diseases. There is currently a shortage of donor
eggs which can help women who have none of their own.
To solve
this problems some clinics had been offering couples who
could not afford IVF cheaper treatment if they gave up some
of their eggs.
Suzi
Leather of HEFA said, "We cannot allow clinics to offer a
treatment where a woman, for no other reason than financial
inducement, subjects herself to an unnecessary and possibly
risky procedure."
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