Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda
See photographs of this event below

An evening debate organised by the Progress Educational Trust (PET) in partnership with the Royal Society of Medicine, supported by the British Fertility Society and the National Gamete Donation Trust.

Recent headlines have reignited the debate over whether payment might be an acceptable way to address the current shortage of egg donors. Some newspapers have speculated that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is planning to allow women to be paid thousands of pounds to donate their eggs. Could such a scenario lead to British students 'going to university on an egg'? The HFEA will explore the possibility of paying egg donors in a public consultation beginning in January 2011.

After its last review of this question in 2005, the HFEA concluded that paying donors was neither possible (because it would conflict with the European Union's 2004 Tissues and Cells Directive) nor desirable (because 'offering compensation for the physical inconvenience or risk of donation may encourage some people to donate without thinking sufficiently about the consequences'). But in 2009, the HFEA's chair Lisa Jardine told the Times newspaper that payment to donors was worth considering if it could help dissuade fertility patients from seeking unlicensed or overseas treatment: 'My agenda is to try to keep assisted reproduction within our regulated area, not because I'm bossy but out of concern for patient welfare.'

It is already the case that egg donors receive 'loss of earnings' compensation, but this is limited to a daily maximum of £61.28 and an overall maximum of £250, which compares poorly with the £97.80 median daily pay received by full-time employees in the UK. It is also the case that egg sharing schemes are permitted in the UK, and these enable women to receive fertility treatment at vastly reduced cost if they donate eggs for use by other patients or for research. Some argue that there is little moral or practical difference between these nominally indirect forms of compensation, and direct payment. Others fear that direct payment would commodify not only eggs, but also egg donors and donor-conceived children.

This evening debate will see the issue of paying egg donors debated by a panel of experts with contrasting perspectives, who will explore the medical, ethical and legal dimensions of various forms of compensation and remuneration. In the PET tradition, following introductory presentations the bulk of the debate's running time will be devoted to soliciting questions and comments from the audience.

Speakers

• Brenda Almond
  President of the Philosophical Society of England and Emeritus Professor of Moral and Social Philosophy at the University of Hull's Department of Humanities

• Dr Sue Avery
  Director of the Fertility Centre at Birmingham Women's Hospital, and researcher at the University of Birmingham's Stem Cell Centre

• Raanan Gillon
  Chair of the Institute of Medical Ethics, and Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics at Imperial College London's School of Public Health

• Professor Brian Lieberman
  Medical Director of Manchester Fertility Services, and Consultant Gynaecologist at St Mary's Hospital for Women and Children

• Laura Witjens
  Chair of the National Gamete Donation Trust, and altruistic egg donor

Chair

• Anthony Rutherford
  Chair of the British Fertility Society and Consultant in Reproductive Medicine and Gynaecological Surgery at the Leeds Centre for Reproductive Medicine

Partners and supporters

• British Fertility Society

• 

• National Gamete Donation Trust

At podium: Sarah Norcross
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

Left to right: Dr Sue Avery, Professor Brenda Almond, Professor Brian Lieberman, Professor Raanan Gillon, Laura Witjens, (at podium) Anthony Rutherford
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

Left to right: Dr Sue Avery, Professor Brenda Almond, Professor Brian Lieberman, Professor Raanan Gillon, Laura Witjens, (at podium) Anthony Rutherford
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

Left to right: Professor Brian Lieberman, Professor Raanan Gillon, Laura Witjens, (at podium) Anthony Rutherford
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

Left to right: Dr Sue Avery, Professor Brenda Almond, Professor Brian Lieberman, Professor Raanan Gillon, Laura Witjens
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

Left to right: Dr Sue Avery, Professor Brenda Almond, Professor Raanan Gillon, Professor Brian Lieberman, Laura Witjens
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

Left to right: Anthony Rutherford, Dr Sue Avery, Professor Brenda Almond
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

Left to right: Professor Raanan Gillon, Laura Witjens
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

Left to right: Professor Brian Lieberman, Laura Witjens, (at podium) Professor Raanan Gillon
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

At podium: Anthony Rutherford
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

At podium: Professor Brenda Almond
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

At podium: Dr Sue Avery
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

At podium: Professor Brian Lieberman
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

At podium: Professor Raanan Gillon
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

At podium: Laura Witjens
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

Left to right at registration: Sandy Starr, Rebecca Jenkins, Zoe Oppong, Kerry Dyus
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda