Advancements in egg donation have allowed couples that are unable to conceive to escape the perils of infertility by offering them an alternative: the eggs of a fertile woman willing to give her reproductive abilities to couples who have none. But egg donation has had a tumultuous history full of physical and ethical hardships. According to AmericanPregnancy.org, about 3,000 babies a year are born to woman carrying donated eggs.
Development
Egg donation began as an alternative method of conception for couples who did not have success with sperm donation. Egg donation is primarily used by couples where the woman suffers from premature infertility or has a genetic condition that prevents her from conceiving without outside help. Research began in the 1980s, after the development of in vitro fertilization, or the process of removing eggs from a woman, fertilizing them with sperm, and then returning the eggs to the woman's uterus. The first successful in vitro fertilization was in the United Kingdom in 1978, followed by the first successful egg donation procedure in Australia in 1983.
Populartiy
Egg donation has become increasingly popular over the years, and according to an essay published by the University of Michigan, this may be a direct result of the fact that women are having children much later in life. It has become more acceptable for women to wait until they have an established career and have persued other endeavors before deciding to have a family, but many of these women sadly discover that conception gets much more difficult with age. But, according to an essay published by the University of Michigan, the odds of becoming pregnant after in vitro fertilization with donated eggs are around 51 percent. The essay also cited that in 2004, about 15,175 donated eggs resulted in 7,588 births.
Federal Regulation
Regulation of fertility clinics and egg donation practices has been relatively minimal in the United States. The United States does offer a tax deduction of medical procedures for a woman seeking egg donation as a means of conception. The Food and Drug Administration requires minimal standards for egg donation that basically entails screening the donor for transferable diseases. According to an essay published by the University of Michigan, there is no federal regulatory license for fertility clinics.
State Regulation
Many individual states developed regulatory parental custody laws after the famous custody battle of Buzzanca v. Buzzanca in 1995 proved there was a severe lack of Federal regulation. The case involved a couple who used egg and sperm donation and a surrogate mother to conceive, were then divorced, and all five individuals involved got involved in a viscous custody battle for the baby. States with official regulation include Colorado, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming, California and New York. New York has done more than any other state, even going so far as to develop the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law which formed in 1985 and has specific policies concerning the rights of contracted assisted reproductive parents and egg donors.
Future and Considerations
While more and more states are leaning toward regulatory policies for egg donation and assisted fertility practices, there is still a long way to go. Egg donation has not garnered the same attention as other embryonic practices such as embryonic stem cell research, because the public controversy over stem cell research is more heated. But there are controversies over the ethical implications of egg donation, such as parental rights, proving consent of the donor, disclosure of the donor's personal information and the push to adopt children who already exist.
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