An American retrospective study carried out in 2008 highlights how the American Society for Reproductive Technology guidelines has failed to control escalating egg donor prices in the U.S.
The demand for egg donation is ever increasing in the United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which has an egg donor database) and Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance Report state that there has been a 2 fold increase in the amount of ART (assisted reproductive technology) cycles completed since 1996.
In recent years in the United States the “market” for eggs has become more ethically questionable. It has been know for eggs to reach sums of $50,000. Couples can choose from, what seems unlimited supply of donors. Which donor they choose and indeed receive would appear to depend on two things. The first is what positive attributes the donor has to offer, the second what kind of compensation the couple can offer. This compensation is not, as in some other countries, solely to cover medical fees. Compensation is literally being used to purchase another person’s eggs. A bidding market, and just like an auction, the highest bidder wins.
Attempts to control this system were put in place by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). A set of guidelines regarding donor egg pricing and surrogacy compensation were made in 2004, which were subsequently undated in 2007. ASRM posted on their website which agencies had agreed to follow these guidelines. The retrospective study followed up on the agencies promises and un-covered some interesting results.
The study found 150 websites online that were egg donation agencies. From egg donor NYC,
to egg donors agencies in California. Only 66 of these agencies agreed to follow the guidelines set out by ASRM. That is well under half. But even more staggering is that after an evaluation of whether these agencies truly adhered to guidelines it was found that 23.6% broke the ASRM guidelines. Therefore, this means out of 150 agencies for egg donation in the U.S. only 50 are following ASRM guidelines.
What repercussions does this have for parties involved in the donor/recipient process? Firstly the lack of regulation means that there is really no control over escalating agency fees. Agencies are the middle man and can profit from taking advantage of the people on either side of the exchange. Also the rising prices tend to exclude all but the wealthy and affluent.
The development made by the ASRM was a step in the right direction towards addressing ethical issues in the egg donation process in the U.S. However, perhaps now the time has come to enforce more strictly adherence to the guidelines. Perhaps enforcing penalties or report agencies that break the agreement would influence agencies to stay true to their word. For, it is similar to no progress at all if these ASRM guidelines are carefully drawn up but not followed.
