Current attitudes towards egg donation among men and women

Abstract

Recent widespread concern has led to legislation in the UK preventing the use of fetal ovarian tissue for the treatment of infertile women. This questionnaire-based study aimed to assess the attitudes of both fertile and infertile men and women as well as egg donors and recipients towards the use of donated eggs for treatment, diagnosis and research. Fertile individuals were significantly less aware of egg donation but the majority in both the fertile and the infertile groups approved the use of eggs for research (89 and 95% of women and 88 and 92% of men respectively) and treatment (similar percentages). However, fetal sources of oocytes were acceptable to only 15% of women in the fertile, 21% in the infertile, 35% in the recipient and 19% in the donor groups. Cadaveric sources of oocytes were slightly more acceptable (28% fertile, 28% infertile, 50% recipient and 42% donors). Both these sources of oocytes were slightly more acceptable to men. Education had little influence on attitudes, although men and women of tertiary education level said they would be less likely to have gamete donation themselves. Thus there would appear to be widespread approval for the use of donor eggs in research and treatment but not if the source of eggs is fetal or cadaveric.