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Barely Studied Risks of Egg-Donation Come Under Scrutiny

By Hilary White
 
August 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A report in the scientific journal, Nature, warns would-be parents that health problems with children conceived artificially in IVF labs could take years to emerge.
 
Pro-life advocates who have objected to embryonic research have pointed out that the number of ova needed for large-scale stem cell and cloning experiments place women – especially poor women – in danger of economic exploitation. Now Nature is exploring whether the heavy demand for ova in IVF and related industries are not also a threat to women’s health.
 
Nature reporter Helen Pearson writes that doctors first started asking about the possible dangers of egg-retreival drugs when a 39 year-old woman died of cancer years after donating ova to her infertile sister. Studies have indicated that the drugs used to stimulate ovarian follicles could be linked to the development of some kinds of cancer.
 
Pearson writes that doctors say systematic research needs to be undertaken to examine all aspects of ova donation and possible long-term consequences. Ethical matters, however, are taking a back seat to questions of availability as the stem cell and cloning experiments are increasingly appoved by national governments. While one large, long-term study is under way in the Netherlands, some doctors worry that any negative press will discourage donors.
 
The British Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will meet next month to discuss the problem. But the HFEA is unlikely to be willing to halt its embryo experimentation track. In February, the government regulatory agency – considered by many to be among the most permissive in the world – proposed allowing “altruistic” ova donation to fuel the embryonic stem cell and cloning experiments it has already approved.
 
Read the full report in Nature:
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060807/full/442607a.html
 
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Feminist Revolutionary Warns of Exploitation of Women with Cloning Research
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/mar/05030303.html
 
British Woman Died of Internal Bleeding After IVF Procedure
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06081006.html

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