Unintended Consequences- Updated
Loss of donor anonymity leads to sperm donor shortage
A textbook story of a government mandate run amok is now playing out in the UK's sperm and egg donor business. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is the UK's independent regulator overseeing the use of gametes and embryos in fertility treatment and research. New HFEA regulations, which became effective in early 2005, have made it very difficult for childless couples to find an egg or sperm donor. As outlined in this article, the new regulation states that when offspring from any donor reaches the age of eighteen, they can access the identity of their donor. The regulation also stipulates that donors can no longer be compensated for their donations; they can only claim "reasonable expenses" incurred while donating.
The new regulations have had the obvious result of reducing the number of men and women who are willing to donate. The number of women treated with donor sperm fell by over 20% from 2,727 in 2005 to 2,107 in 2006. Shared eggs were used in only 680 fertility procedures in 2006, compared with 1,142 in 2004 (a 40% decline), the last year before the new regulations became effective. Donor anonymity has been typical of the egg and sperm bank business for decades in the United States, and before 2005, this was also true in the UK. While many donors have a desire to help childless couples, it's not hard to predict what would happen if they are given no choice in anonymity and are not compensated for their efforts.
The author of this article describes her quest to import donor sperm after learning of the two year wait in the UK. The author describes the struggle between different people's rights and states "Whose should be the greater? The right of the child to track down its biological parent when it's 18, the right of the donor to stay anonymous, or that of the mother simply to have the child?" At the present time, compromise would seem to be the best solution...many US sperm banks and egg donation programs now offer donors and patients a choice in anonymity. If there's anything positive that can be said about this situation, it's that it should be a clear warning to legislators in the US of the serious implications from following the UK’s regulations on donor anonymity and compensation.
Update
A year after the law changed on anonymity, two thirds of fertility clinics said their waiting times for sperm treatment had lengthened. HFEA maintains that there is no sperm donor shortage and it is a "myth" that there is a shortage as the number of sperm donors rose slightly from 2005 to 2006. But this rise is due to an increase in the number of known donors- friends and relatives that donate specifically for one couple. Secretary of the British Fertility Society, Allan Pacey, MD, a fertility expert at Sheffield University said they are treating 600 less patients. He stated "'after the change in the law, many men are exercising their right to limit the number of times their sperm can be used. They do not want 10 children turning up on their doorstep 18 years on, or they are donating only for a friend."
Infertility support groups are now calling the situation a "national crisis" as clinics close and patients travel abroad for treatment. Clare Brown, chief executive of Infertility Network UK, recently said the change in law had made a "huge difference" to the number of men volunteering. She stated: "Clinics across the country are having to close because there is a shortage of donor sperm - and that constitutes a crisis. Before the anonymity law was introduced we didn't have a shortage of sperm donors - now we have." Reports from HFEA show that as few as ten new donors are being recruited in Britain each month compared to thirty a few years ago. There is now only one active sperm donor for the whole of Scotland and Oxfordshire clinics have just one man willing to be provide sperm. Fertility experts believe there could be as few as twenty active donors being shared by the ninety-three fertility clinics in the UK. Experts also fear the shortage will lead to a rise in women seeking donors from unregulated internet sites which do not screen for diseases such as HIV.
A textbook story of a government mandate run amok is now playing out in the UK's sperm and egg donor business. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is the UK's independent regulator overseeing the use of gametes and embryos in fertility treatment and research. New HFEA regulations, which became effective in early 2005, have made it very difficult for childless couples to find an egg or sperm donor. As outlined in this article, the new regulation states that when offspring from any donor reaches the age of eighteen, they can access the identity of their donor. The regulation also stipulates that donors can no longer be compensated for their donations; they can only claim "reasonable expenses" incurred while donating.
The new regulations have had the obvious result of reducing the number of men and women who are willing to donate. The number of women treated with donor sperm fell by over 20% from 2,727 in 2005 to 2,107 in 2006. Shared eggs were used in only 680 fertility procedures in 2006, compared with 1,142 in 2004 (a 40% decline), the last year before the new regulations became effective. Donor anonymity has been typical of the egg and sperm bank business for decades in the United States, and before 2005, this was also true in the UK. While many donors have a desire to help childless couples, it's not hard to predict what would happen if they are given no choice in anonymity and are not compensated for their efforts.
The author of this article describes her quest to import donor sperm after learning of the two year wait in the UK. The author describes the struggle between different people's rights and states "Whose should be the greater? The right of the child to track down its biological parent when it's 18, the right of the donor to stay anonymous, or that of the mother simply to have the child?" At the present time, compromise would seem to be the best solution...many US sperm banks and egg donation programs now offer donors and patients a choice in anonymity. If there's anything positive that can be said about this situation, it's that it should be a clear warning to legislators in the US of the serious implications from following the UK’s regulations on donor anonymity and compensation.
Update
A year after the law changed on anonymity, two thirds of fertility clinics said their waiting times for sperm treatment had lengthened. HFEA maintains that there is no sperm donor shortage and it is a "myth" that there is a shortage as the number of sperm donors rose slightly from 2005 to 2006. But this rise is due to an increase in the number of known donors- friends and relatives that donate specifically for one couple. Secretary of the British Fertility Society, Allan Pacey, MD, a fertility expert at Sheffield University said they are treating 600 less patients. He stated "'after the change in the law, many men are exercising their right to limit the number of times their sperm can be used. They do not want 10 children turning up on their doorstep 18 years on, or they are donating only for a friend."
Infertility support groups are now calling the situation a "national crisis" as clinics close and patients travel abroad for treatment. Clare Brown, chief executive of Infertility Network UK, recently said the change in law had made a "huge difference" to the number of men volunteering. She stated: "Clinics across the country are having to close because there is a shortage of donor sperm - and that constitutes a crisis. Before the anonymity law was introduced we didn't have a shortage of sperm donors - now we have." Reports from HFEA show that as few as ten new donors are being recruited in Britain each month compared to thirty a few years ago. There is now only one active sperm donor for the whole of Scotland and Oxfordshire clinics have just one man willing to be provide sperm. Fertility experts believe there could be as few as twenty active donors being shared by the ninety-three fertility clinics in the UK. Experts also fear the shortage will lead to a rise in women seeking donors from unregulated internet sites which do not screen for diseases such as HIV.
posted by Kathleen, Contributing Editor at
7:00 AM
1 Comments:
Do you blame them (sperm donors and egg donors)? I sure don't. I don't think that's what anyone intentionally signs up for. And let's face it when you take away compensation that sometimes is a huge factor in why donors donate -- and I personally don't see anything wrong with that.
I think in the United States if a voluntary registry was created and made available at all clinics for egg donors and sperm donors to register if they wanted then that would be an apprpropriate option.
The other part of this that no one has thought of (I don't think), is the fact that while the UK requires mandatory registry what's stopping from these egg and sperm donors to move, and lose contact. You can't make anyone meet anyone -so who's to say if 18 years after a donation a child via this process attempts to look up their egg or sperm donor and their donors have moved or intentionally don't want to meet those children. You just can't make anyone meet anyone. It's not how the world works.
Congrats on your baby:):)
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