Interests, obligations, and rights in gamete and embryo donation: an Ethics Committee opinion
Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine
Committee members:Judith Daar, Lee Collins, Joseph Davis, Leslie Francis, Elena Gates, Elizabeth Ginsburg, Susan Gitlin, Sigal Klipstein, Laurence McCullough, Richard Paulson, Richard Reindollar, Ginny Ryan, Mark Sauer, Sean Tipton, Lynn Westphal, Julianne Zweifel, …
Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (2019). Interests, obligations, and rights in gamete and embryo donation: an Ethics Committee opinion. Fertility and sterility. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2019.01.018
Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Interests, obligations, and rights in gamete and embryo donation: an Ethics Committee opinion. Fertility and sterility. 2019. doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2019.01.018
Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. "Interests, obligations, and rights in gamete and embryo donation: an Ethics Committee opinion." Fertility and sterility, 2019.
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RRM Academy Synopsis
ASRM says programs cannot promise donor anonymity or future contact
The ASRM Ethics Committee says programs cannot promise donors anonymity or future information sharing. The 2019 opinion on gamete and embryo donation replaces a 2014 document. It describes what donors, recipients, children and programs each have at stake.
Study at a glance, ethics opinion: ASRM says donation programs cannot promise anonymity or future contact. Source: Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, 2019, PMID 30871766.
Key Findings
The committee advises that donors be told they may withdraw at any point but lose dispositional control over procured gametes or embryos unless a valid contract provides otherwise.
The committee advises that donors be told donation gives them no legal rights or duties to rear resulting children, and that recipients take on those rights and duties at procurement.
The committee identifies three levels of donor information sharing: non-identifying information, non-identifying contact information for medical updates, and identifying information. It advises documenting, before care begins, what information will be shared.
With no studies supporting either side, the committee holds it acceptable for programs not to tell donors whether a pregnancy occurs, while encouraging an option to learn whether a child is born.
The committee states that egg donors have a right to know who bears treatment costs if injuries occur, and that programs are ethically obliged to ensure a reasonable mechanism covers them.
Interpretation
This is an ethics opinion from the ASRM Ethics Committee, presenting its reasoning and recommendations with cited references. The committee finds little agreement in the field on how to balance donor, recipient and child interests, and sets out guidance for programs on each point. The authors note that data on the long-term emotional effects of donation on donors are lacking. The findings support further study of those long-term effects.
RRM Context
Donated eggs, sperm and embryos come through assisted reproduction, which bypasses infertility without finding why conception has not occurred. Restorative reproductive medicine (RRM) evaluates both partners to find and treat the cause. RRM aims for conception with the couple's own eggs and sperm. Questions about donor anonymity and contact with offspring arise when a third party supplies the gametes.
Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.
Abstract
This Ethics Committee report outlines the interests, obligations, and rights of all parties involved in gamete and embryo donation: both males and females who choose to provide gametes or embryos for use by others, recipients of donated gametes and embryos, individuals born as a result of gamete or embryo donation, and the programs that provide donated gametes and embryos to patients. This document replaces the document "Interests, obligations, and rights of the donor in gamete donation," last published in 2014.
Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, 2017
Ethics and Policy › Reproductive Ethics › Third Party Reproduction · Clinical Guidelines and Standards › Guidelines by Issuing Body › United States Professional Societies
Judith Daar, Lee Collins, Joseph Davis, Leslie Francis, Elena Gates, Elizabeth Ginsburg, Susan Gitlin, Sigal Klipstein, Laurence McCullough, Richard Paulson, Richard Reindollar, Ginny Ryan, Mark Sauer, Sean Tipton, Lynn Westphal, Julianne Zweifel, 0000-0003-0284-2845
J Daar, L Collins, Joe Davis, Joey Davis, J Davis, L Francis, E Gates, Liz Ginsburg, Beth Ginsburg, Betsy Ginsburg, E Ginsburg, Sue Gitlin, S Gitlin, S Klipstein, Larry McCullough, L McCullough, Rick Paulson, Dick Paulson, Rich Paulson, R Paulson, Rick Reindollar, Dick Reindollar, Rich Reindollar, R Reindollar, G Ryan, M Sauer, S Tipton, L Westphal, J Zweifel
PMID 30871766 30871766 DOI 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2019.01.018 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2019.01.018 Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine et al. 2019, Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine 2019
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