[Anarchafeminists] No2Eggsploitation - help stop exploitation of women's bodies

[Gail Chester]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: David King 
To: gailchester at blueyonder.co.uk 
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2011 2:17 PM
Subject: Re: for feminist lists latest version


Do you care if young women, such as students with massive debts, get sucked into giving their eggs to infertile women, to earn some cash, and end up with their health damaged, whilst the IVF industry continues to make a fortune?  That's not a theoretical scenario, it's what happens already in Eastern Europe, and now there are plans to do it here.  The health risks are caused by the powerful hormones which are used to force ovaries to produce large numbers of eggs.

 

If you care about the commodification of women's bodies, this is another way in which corporations exploit us, but there's a chance to stop it happening, if you act now.  No2Eggsploitation, an independent feminist network, is campaigning against the plans by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to introduce cash payments for egg donors.  Our press release is below, plus coverage from the Guardian and the BBC today.

 

You can let the HFEA know your views by going to www.hfea.gov.uk/donationreview.  But don't believe what you're told in their consultation document about the health risks, which are much greater than they say.  Later this week we will be publishing a briefing on the issue, but you can get more background on our blog, no2eggsploitation.wordpress.com.  PLEASE ACT NOW and support our campaign by contacting us at no2eggsploitation at riseup.net

 

No2Eggsploitation and Human Genetics Alert

 

Media release

 

Embargo: 00.01am 17th January 2011

 

HFEA plans for egg donor compensation will lead to exploitation of women

Ethics takes second place to free market dogma and IVF industry demands

 

"HFEA plans to allow financial compensation for egg donors will lead to the exploitation of young women in financial stress," said Dr Alex Plows, spokesperson for No2Eggsploitation (1) today.  "These financial incentives will induce women students with massively increased debts, and others, to take serious health risks (2), and it is inevitable that many will be harmed.  Another problem is that less well off women will be unable to afford the increased price of donated eggs, and NHS IVF services will be priced out of the market (3), creating further inequalities.  We must not allow IVF business interests and free-market dogma to overthrow basic ethical values."

 

Although it claims to be neutral, the HFEA's bias, in favour of increased financial compensation as the best way to boost donor numbers, has been clear from many internal documents, and from the initial statement by Lisa Jardine, in July 2009 (4), in favour of straightforward payment for eggs (which is in fact illegal). However, they are hampered by the EU Tissues and Cells Directive, which was introduced to stop the international black market in human organs, and which bans financial incentives for donors.  The concern about harm to donors is not theoretical: many Eastern European women have been harmed through serving as paid egg donors for Western European fertility tourists (5).  The HFEA has acknowledged concerns about such 'eggsploitation' as a central reason for not allowing compensation (beyond reimbursement of expenses) in all its previous reports on this issue.  Yet, astonishingly, the current consultation document does not even mention this concern, and does not adequately describe the health risks to donors; nor does it mention the internationally agreed principle that human tissue should not be a source of financial gain.

 

Because the EU Directive bans financial incentives, the HFEA's argues that it does not want to create incentives, but rather to 'remove disincentives' for altruistic donors.  But there is no evidence whatever that the HFEA's target group - altruistic donors who are nonetheless reluctant to donate without cash compensation - even exists. Their previous report in 2006 (6) questioned whether offering altruistic donors cash payments would succeed in boosting donor numbers, and their research for this consultation agreed, pointing out that many altruistic donors are offended by the idea and would be put off (7).  

 

The IVF industry, which is the only significant source of support for the HFEA's plans, is not interested in such subtleties.  It simply believes in the free-market dogma that financial incentives are needed; it clearly wants to reclaim the business that has recently gone to Spain, where donors are paid compensation of up to 1000 Euro.  Yet evidence from Spain shows that, not surprisingly, most egg donors there are primarily interested in the money (8).  Thus, despite the HFEA's unconvincing fig leaf, introducing significant compensation is bound to recruit exactly the type of donor it says it does not want to encourage.  We believe that resources would be better spent on campaigns to recruit altruistic donors than on offering them financial sweeteners (9).  

 

Human Genetics Alert will tomorrow publish a briefing which analyses and refutes the arguments in favour of compensation, and shows how the HFEA understates the risks of egg donation, how, over the last 10 years it has engineered a slippery slope towards ever increasing payments for donors, and how this step will in turn move us nearer to a market for organs.

 

For further information or to arrange an interview, email no2eggsploitation at riseup.net, or call Dr Alex Plows (07775 603341) or Dr David King, Director of Human Genetics Alert (020 7502 7516).

 

Notes for editors
 

1. No2Eggsploitation is a network of feminists opposed to the commercialisation of egg donation.  Like Human Genetics Alert, (which is an independent watchdog group), it supports abortion rights.

2. The HFEA quotes a 1-2% risk of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome, arising form the powerful hormones used in IVF, but its own academic review says that the risk is 3-8%, and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says that one third of women will suffer some symptoms.  The number of women who have died from OHSS is unclear, since no good records are kept, but the HFEA review suggests it may be 1-2 women per year in Britain.  In addition there are as yet unknown long term risks of breast, ovarian and endometrial cancers. Later this week we will be publishing a detailed briefing on the issue.

3. The HFEA's own research has mentioned this as a serious concern (HFEA paper 528 Para 10.15 http://www.hfea.gov.uk/docs/2009-12-09_Authority_papers_-_528_SEED_Evaluation.pdf ), although the current consultation document fails to even mention the issue.  In Spain, where donors are paid up to 1000 Euro, public hospitals, which cannot afford this, are unable to attract egg donors (see ref in Note 8)

4. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6728391.ece

5. See for example, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1339041/The-brutal-fertility-factories-trading-British-mothers-dreams.html, or  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-396220/The-misery-baby-trade.html.  One particularly outrageous aspect of the HFEA's behaviour in the current debate is that it has not even paid lipservice to this issue, preferring to argue that the problem with fertility tourism is that British women seeking eggs may have a less good experience in foreign clinics, and that children may not be able to find their donor in future, because donors are anonymous outside the UK.

6. The SEED report (http://www.hfea.gov.uk/docs/SEEDReport05.pdf)

7. HFEA paper 528 (see note 3), para 10.14.  The HFEA has not been able to cite any donors calling for more compensation as the reason for launching this consultation.

8. In Spain the most usual profile of donors is a university student, between 20 and 25 years old, and, also immigrant women, mainly coming from Eastern Europe. Some of these donors are invited to undergo up to four ovarian stimulation cycles in a year, which is very dangerous (http://www.elpais.com/articulo/salud/Donacion/ovulos/elpsalpor/20060328elpepisal_4/Tes).  Another indicator of donor motivation there is that, as in the USA, where donors can receive $50,000 for eggs if they are 'genetically superior' (high SAT scores, athletic and attractive), there was a sharp rise in women offering to donate when the financial crisis hit in 2008 (http://www.elpais.com/articulo/Comunidad/Valenciana/crisis/dispara/donaciones/ovulos/elpepuespval/20081205elpval_1/Tes).  HGA has English translations of these articles.

9.Laura Witjens of the National Gamete Donation Trust, which campaigns to recruit donors, recently stated at a meeting of the Progress Education Trust (Paying egg donors: a child at any price? October 20 2010) that more donors could be recruited if the Government, which funds the Trust, were to make more money available for their campaigns.

 

 

Fertility views sought on egg donations within families

Watchdog wants opinions on family donations as questions are raised over compensation to donors

 

Sarah Boseley, health editor

The Guardian,   Monday 17 January 2011

 

The HFEA is calling for the widest possible participation in the public consultation. Photograph: Vincenzo Lombardo/Getty Images

Public attitudes to childbirth are to be tested tomorrow in a consultation launched by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which will ask whether it is acceptable for a baby to be born, through egg donation, to a woman who is also its grandmother.

 

The authority is calling for the widest possible participation in the public consultation on the use of donor eggs and sperm to enable infertile couples to have a baby. Views will be sought on whether donors, who are in short supply, should receive more money than they currently receive in compensation for loss of earnings and expenses. But the HFEA also wants to know whether rules should be brought in to prevent close relatives - who would be forbidden by law from marrying - from donating eggs or sperm to each other. It is not uncommon for a sister to donate an egg to her sister - the child is then the genetic daughter and niece of the donor.

 

But, the consultation will ask, should - as happened recently - a woman be allowed to donate eggs to ensure her infertile daughter can have a baby, when the ensuing child would be both her daughter and her granddaughter?

 

Prof Lisa Jardine, chair of the HFEA, said that the increasing use of fertility treatment and the increasing openness about the children it produces meant that the whole of society ought to be involved in deciding what was acceptable. "I'm a good example of a generation whose children played with other children in the full understanding that all of those children were of heterosexual couples and had been produced . by a conventional method of reproduction.

 

"Many of them had not been. We didn't know and the community didn't know."

 

She cited a New York Times Review cover, which featured two babies described as "twiblings" - they had one father but separate surrogate mothers and were born within days of each other. "The point I really want to make is that this of importance to all of us. These are new kinds of families. They are populating our communities. Genetically, the consequences for the community are bound to become more complicated."

 

Those parents who now have small children may one day have to explain to them what one of their friends means when he says he is donor-conceived, she said.

 

"Donation is part of all our lives. Everybody needs to have a view. It is about all of us. It's about new, emerging types of families and how they will impact on all families," she said.

 

Only about 12% of fertility treatments involve donated eggs or sperm, but the HFEA believes that will rise, or would if there were sufficient donors to fill demand.

 

The public consultation that begins today asks about reimbursement for donors. At the moment, HFEA rules allow compensation for expenses and loss of earnings up to £250, but not for inconvenience as some other European countries do. In Spain, egg donors receive around £765 and sperm donors £40 per sample. While the HFEA does not want to provide a financial incentive, because donation must be based on altruism, clinics say some donors are left out of pocket. The authority wants to know whether a lump sum should be paid, if the system should be less complicated, and what compensation should be offered.

 

However the campaign group No2Eggsploitation said any plan to allow financial compensation for egg donors would "lead to the exploitation of young women in financial stress". Another question is over the number of families a single sperm donor is allowed to create. At the moment, the limit is ten, but because of delays in establishing whether the woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a healthy baby, in practice sperm donors often help no more than two or three families.

 

Inter-family donation is popular because it maintains genetic links, but the consultation asks for opinions on the social and ethical outcomes. Options that will be canvassed are a ban on the mixing of sperm and eggs between close relatives (those who would otherwise be banned from having sex with each other) or a ban only on the mixing of sperm and eggs between genetic relatives.

 

The consultation site, which will be open for three months, can be found at www.hfea.co.uk/donationreview.

 

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12193598

 

17 January 2011 

Lisa Jardine starts egg donor compensation discussion

By James Gallagher

Health reporter, BBC news

 

Egg donor expenses 'under review'

'Why sperm donors should be paid more'

Mother to freeze eggs for toddler

People are being asked if sperm and egg donors should be given more money.

 

Demand for donor treatment is far greater than supply and the body which regulates treatment is concerned about couples looking abroad.

 

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has launched a public consultation to see how regulation of donation can be improved.

 

Some campaigners have described any exchange of money for eggs or sperm as an inducement to sell body parts.

 

The HFEA is concerned about long waiting lists for egg donation in the UK.

 

It says some couples are waiting up to five years and this is one of the reasons people are looking abroad.

 

More money for donors?

An EU directive means donors cannot be "paid", but they can be "compensated" to cover expenses and loss of earnings.

 

The rules have been interpreted differently across Europe. In the UK, the limit is £250. Egg donors in Spain can get £765.

 

Professor Lisa Jardine, head of the HFEA, said Spain had higher donation rates, but that it might be due to cultural reasons.

 

She added that the level of compensation will be discussed in the consultation: "The system is hard to administer and some people have donated at a loss, the law allows us to be more generous."

 

Alan Thornhill, the scientific director at the London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics Centre, said: "The sector is crying out for a simple, transparent compensation system ensuring that donors are not left out of pocket or put off by unnecessary bureaucracy.

 

Josephine Quintavalle, founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, opposed the idea: "They haven't got enough eggs so they're upping the ante.

 

"It's an inducement to sell body parts, I think it's humbug trying to call it donation or compensation.

 

"The best way to solve the problem is to encourage women to have children earlier and society needs to change to support that."

 

 

Anonymity for sperm donors will not be considered

The family factor

The consultation will also look at how many different families can use one donor's eggs or sperm.

 

The current limit is 10, to reduce the risk of children from the same donor unknowingly starting a relationship.

 

Donations within families will also be discussed.

 

Last week, Penny Jarvis from Sheffield, said she wanted to freeze her eggs for her infertile daughter.

 

Professor Jardine said this could become more common in the future and she wants the consultation to consider the social implications, such as a child's grandmother also being their genetic mother.

 

Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said: "Donation issues raise many ethical issues for some people and so it is important that they engage with this consultation so we know what UK citizens think about these issues.

 

"That way, we can set a new framework that should serve us well for the next decade, and hopefully improve the opportunities for UK couples who need donor sperm, eggs and embryos to start a family."

 

Dr Alex Lows, spokesperson for No2Eggsploitation, said: "HFEA plans to allow financial compensation for egg donors will lead to the exploitation of young women in financial stress.

 

"These financial incentives will induce women students with massively increased debts, and others, to take serious health risks and it is inevitable that many will be harmed."

 

Donors have not been entitled to anonymity since 2005 and it's thought the decision may have put some people off, however, the issue will not be debated in the consultation.

 

The conclusions of the three month consultation will be presented at the HFEA board meeting in July.

 

The future of the regulator is uncertain after the government announced it would be scrapped in this parliament.

 

Professor Jardine said the HFEA will continue until at least 2013, and that any recommendations would be in place by then.

 

 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1347801/IVF-egg-donors-paid-thousands-watchdog-wants-lift-250-limit-compensation.html

 

IVF egg donors 'to be paid thousands': Watchdog wants to lift £250 limit on compensation

By JENNY HOPE

Last updated at 12:12 AM on 17th January 2011

Comments (12)

Add to My Stories

 

Pitter patter: Women are set to receive thousands of pounds for donating their eggs under a plan to help more infertile women conceive (posed by model)

Women are set to receive thousands of pounds for donating their eggs under a plan to help more infertile women conceive.

It would remove the current limit of £250 compensation for undergoing the complex process, which involves taking powerful and potentially dangerous drugs and having a 'harvesting' operation.

The plans, unveiled today in a consultation by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, would aim to prevent hundreds of 'fertility tourists' being driven abroad every year because of the drastic shortage of eggs in this country.

Sperm donors could also be compensated for their 'inconvenience'.

Fertility doctors backed the move, but ethics groups expressed concern that women's bodies were being turned into 'commodities'.

The move comes after a High Court judge opened the way last year for surrogate mothers to be paid, a practice which had been banned.

The fertility watchdog, the HFEA, is now reviewing its policy after conceding that compensation rules are too complex.

In the United States, women can be paid up to £5,000 for allowing their eggs to be harvested.



European law forbids cash payments but permits compensation, and the HFEA says it could be 'more generous' within current legislation. The change would not need to be approved by Parliament.

The small amount of cash given to donors has been blamed for the shortage of eggs in Britain, though a change in UK law which requires the identity of sperm or egg donors to be revealed to their children is also blamed by some experts for long waiting lists.

Dr Allan Pacey, a Sheffield University fertility expert, believes that British women donors should receive at least as much as those in Spain, who get around £765. 

'The experience of Spain has shown that it is a reasonable amount that is not going to corrupt people,' he said.

Privately, some clinics expect a far higher figure to be set in Britain.

But Dr David King, director of Human Genetics Alert, an independent watchdog group, said: 'We believe it is simply wrong to turn human eggs into commodities.

'This is a step towards a market in organs, with all the exploitation that entails.'

Dr Alex Plows of campaign group No2Eggsploitation said: 'Financial compensation for egg donors will induce students with debts, and others, to take serious health risks and it is inevitable that many will be harmed.

 

'Another problem is that less well-off women will be unable to afford the increased price of donated eggs, and NHS IVF services will be priced out of the market, creating further inequalities.

'We must not allow IVF business interests and free-market dogma to overthrow basic ethical values.' Critics caution that, unlike sperm donation, giving eggs is a potentially dangerous procedure.

Drugs used to boost egg production can cause ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, a potentially fatal condition, and the retrieval of eggs using a long needle can be excruciatingly painful.

There are also fears of commercialisation, with eggs donated by beauty queens or Oxbridge graduates commanding the highest prices.

It is argued that more should be done to cure infertility and to encourage women to have children when they are young and their eggs still in good condition.

Although the HFEA is under threat as part of the Government's bonfire of the quangos, it remains in charge of fertility rules and even if abolished, its consultation would be of key importance in deciding future policy.

The process, which uses a series of questionnaires on the HFEA website, finishes in April and decisions on changes in policy will be made in July.
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