The HFEA should stick to its guns on egg sharing

This week's BioNews reports on the continuing controversy surrounding the practice known as egg sharing. In a letter to all licensed IVF clinics in the United Kingdom, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) distanced itself from egg sharing and ordered clinics to remove from their literature any reference to the HFEA's endorsement of the practice. Egg sharing may be acceptable in some circumstances, but the HFEA does not wish to be associated with it.

Apparently, some clinics have been placing adverts for egg sharing schemes which include the assurance that the practice is ethically approved by the HFEA. But this is, we learn, not the case. Despite the authority's announcement in December 1998 that egg sharing - and other forms of payment to egg and sperm donors - should be permitted, the HFEA has not, we are told, given ethical approval to the practice.

There is clearly some confusion over egg sharing. But apart from the fact that clinics obviously want to increase their supply of patients (and their revenue), part of the reason for the advertising must be this confusion. The public is not aware of whether egg sharing is allowed or it is not. Even the professionals in the field seem confused.

And who can blame them? Initial HFEA discussion on the issue of payment (in cash and in kind) to egg and sperm donors seemed to suggest that the authority would sanction modest payments. But the authority then went on to announce that all payments would be outlawed. Finally, in December 1998, it reversed the policy and decided to allow modest payments, and egg sharing, to continue. Having made a final decision on the matter, however, the HFEA did little to advertise the new policy. The result has perplexed clinics and confused patients.

Clinics advertising egg sharing schemes are clearly doing so for their own commercial ends. If they are stepping out of line, then the HFEA is well within its rights to pull them back in. But the best way to effectively regulate the fertility industry is surely to develop clear, unambiguous policies. Now that the authority has made a decision about egg sharing and it does have a policy in place, it should stick to its guns. It is perplexing to hear the HFEA say that it has not ethically approved a practice that has not been outlawed. If egg sharing is not unacceptable, then it can only be acceptable - unless there is another category in between which none of us are yet aware of.