Donating eggs for research – should the HFEA reconsider its policy on payments to egg donors?

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) policy on payments to egg donors states that an ‘expense neutral’ approach is to be adopted, regardless of whether the donation is for treatment or research purposes. In this article the HFEA case against compensatory payments for egg donors will be examined as will the expectation that women should donate eggs for medical research without the offer of financial recompense. This will be shown to sit uneasily alongside existing policy that both permits indirect payments by way of egg-sharing schemes and allows healthy participants in research trials to receive financial remuneration for their contribution to medical science. It will be concluded that the HFEA should reconsider its policy on paying women to donate eggs for medical research.