Embryo donation: outcome and attitudes among embryo donors and recipients

Abstract

The outcome of an embryo donation programme was evaluated and attitudes among donors and recipients studied by means of a questionnaire survey. A total of 27 couples went through 54 treatment cycles with frozen-thawed embryos donated by other infertile couples. The indications for treatment were premature or incipient ovarian failure in combination with severe male factor infertility. The mean age of the recipient women was 36 years, and that of the recipient men was 35 years. The mean duration of infertility was 8 years (range 2-19 years). Forty-six couples donated 209 excess frozen embryos to the programme. The clinical pregnancy rate in the recipients was 27.8% (15/54) per embryo transfer. An average of 1.9 embryos were transferred on each occasion. The response rate to the questionnaire was high (80-91%). Significantly more recipients (69%) than donors (47%) considered that the child should be informed about the manner of conception (P < 0.05). Some 29% of recipients and 42% of donors thought that the child should receive identifying information concerning the donor couple. The interest of the offspring, not only as regards knowing his/her genetic origin but also knowing full-blood genetic siblings, should be kept in mind in embryo donation programmes.

Decisions for the fate of frozen embryos: Fresh insights into patients' thinking and their rationales for donating or discarding embryos

“…Their belief that families are determined by genetics led them to project an image of the embryo as a 'virtual' child, a genetic 'replica' of an existing child. This directly echoes findings previously reported in several studies (McMahon et al, 2000(McMahon et al, , 2003Soderstrom-Antitila et al, 2001;Nachtigall et al, 2005). 'Real' parents were believed to be those who contributed to the genetic makeup of the child.…”

“…Newton et al (2003) found that patients most likely to donate embryos held views which likened embryo donation to infant adoption. In a comparison of embryo donors to oocyte donors, embryo donors were more likely to perceive they were giving away a child, rather than a cell (Soderstrom-Antitila et al, 2001). But Widdows and MacCallum (2002) reported disparities between adoption and embryo donation parent selection procedures, suggesting that, while there are similarities, there are also important differences.…”

“…The decision to dispose of unused embryos is widely acknowledged to be an emotionally difficult one (Soderstrom-Antitila et al, 2001;Svanberg et al, 2001;McMahon et al, 2003;Nachtigall et al, 2005), and one that was reported as involving time and various cognitive stages (Nachtigall et al, 2005). A couple's conceptualization of their embryo is emerging as an important factor that contributes to the complexity and difficulty of the decision (de Lacey, 2005;Nachtigall et al, 2005).…”

To name or not to name? An overview of the social and ethical issues raised by removing anonymity from sperm donors

“…Research conducted before removal of anonymity suggests that most children are ignorant of their donor offspring status [22][23][24][25]. Other European studies revealed that most couples did not intend to tell their children of their DI origins [26][27][28]. More recently, Golombok et al [25], in a study of 94 families with children conceived by DI, found that only 8.6% of DI children had been informed about their genetic origins, compared with 50% of in vitro fertilization (IVF) parents and 95% of adoptive parents.…”

Knowledge and attitudes of infertile couples towards embryo donation program

“…2 Also, unlike adoption, the couple does not have to go through a legal process in order to be declared the child's legal parents. 3,4 Embryo donation is an accepted method in assisted reproduction techniques in many parts of the world. Therefore, the aim of this descriptive survey was to investigate the attitudes of infertile couples towards different aspects of ED.…”