Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology / Chairman: Dame Mary Warnock, DBE.

  • Great Britain. Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology.
Date:
1984
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology / Chairman: Dame Mary Warnock, DBE. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and that the same principles of practice described in Chapter Four should apply to both. However, there is an important practical difference between the two procedures. Egg donation requires an invasive procedure to obtain the egg and the whole. process necessitates the active assistance of the medical profes- sion. Nonetheless so far as possible similar principles should apply in relation to the anonymity of the donor, screening, donor profiles, the child’s right to know the facts of the donation and access for the couples to information about the donor’s ethnic origin and genetic health and, similarly, access for the child to this information on reaching the age of majority. We recommend that egg donation be accepted as a recog- nised technique in the treatment of infertility subject to the same type of licensing and controls as we have recommended for the regulation of AID and IVF. The principles of good practice we have already considered in relation to these other techniques should apply, including the anonymity of the donor, limitation of the number of children born from the eggs of any one donor to ten, openness with the child about his genetic origins, the availability of counselling for all parties and informed consent. 6.7 Despite our desire to maintain the anonymity of the donor we recognise that because of the present practicalities of egg donation, particularly the fact that eggs cannot be suc- cessfully stored, it may not always at present be possible to achieve this. An exception to the principle of anonymity would occur where the egg was donated by a sister or close friend. In such cases particularly careful counselling for all concerned would be necessary and thought would have to be given as to how and at what stage the child should be told about its parentage. 6.8 Egg donation produces for the first time circumstances in which the genetic mother (the woman who donates the egg), is a different person from the woman who gives birth to the child, the carrying mother. The law has never, till now, had to face this problem. There are inevitably going to be instances where the stark issue arises of who is the mother. In order to achieve some certainty in this situation it is our view that where a woman donates an egg for transfer to another the dona- tion should be treated as absolute and that, like a male donor she should have no rights or duties with regard to any resulting child. We recommend that legislation should provide