Egg Donation: Exploring Attitudes of Students Towards Donation

Abstract

Conception with donated oocytes represents an important option for overcoming sterility, but brings with it numerous dilemmas, which have been dealt with differently in various European countries. In the Republic of Serbia, anonymous oocyte donation is legal, and donors include women from the general population, and women undergoing IVF. This is a new phenomenon in our society, for which the law requires promotion. In order for the campaign to be appropriate, it is necessary to learn about existing attitudes. This research was carried out with the aim of determining the attitudes of students towards egg donation (N = 503; 206 young men, 297 young women). A questionnaire was used, designed based on the scale used by Swedish authors to study the attitudes of potential donors (Skoog-Svanberg, Lampic, Bergh, & Lundkvist, 2003). The obtained results indicate that there are generally positive attitudes towards oocyte donation, but that most respondents are reserved regarding the issue of propagating donors in the media. Most of the respondents are unsure regarding donation from IVF, and when asked about donor anonymity and the right of the child to learn its genetic origin, they showed signs of oscillating and supporting contradictory options. Even though this study was carried out on a student population, it is possible to identify significant guidelines for the start of the promotion of voluntary egg donation in RS, as well as implications for future research.