AN 鈥渆gg-sharing鈥� scheme got the go-ahead in the UK last week. In return for donating spare eggs women will offered contributions towards expensive IVF treatment.
The North East England Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle received permission on 27 July to pursue the strategy. The donated eggs will be used to research techniques for creating cloned human embryos, like the early-stage embryo the Newcastle team produced in 2005. The aim is to extract stem cells from a cloned embryo, something not yet achieved anywhere.
Alison Murdoch and her colleagues at the institute hope that through the egg-sharing scheme more women will be persuaded to offer eggs.
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Not everyone is happy. 鈥淚f the Newcastle institute is paying for IVF, that鈥檚 providing an incentive, which I think is unethical,鈥� says David King of the London-based genetics watchdog Human Genetics Alert.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to help women have IVF who wouldn鈥檛 normally be able to afford it鈥�
Murdoch denies that the scheme is a form of bribery. She says that many British women can鈥檛 afford IVF. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to help women to have treatment they wouldn鈥檛 normally be able to afford.鈥�
