According to the fertility regulator in the UK women there will soon be able to donate their eggs for medical research.
The fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said it would extend permission for egg donation for research to women who are not already undergoing fertility treatment.
In the past donations have only been sanctioned for eggs produced through fertility treatment or a gynaecological procedure such as sterilisation and researchers wanting to obtain eggs from women had to apply for a licence from the HFEA.
HFEA Chief Executive Angela McNab says as the medical risks for donating for research are no higher than for treatment, they have concluded that a woman is entitled to a choice on how her donated eggs should be used.
McNab says permission would be granted as long as strong safeguards are in place to ensure the women are properly informed of the risks of the procedure and are adequately protected from coercion.
Women will also be allowed to donate through egg-sharing schemes, where they will receive cut-price fertility treatment (IVF) in return for handing over eggs to stem cell researchers.
The egg donors will not be paid other than for expenses and sperm donors will receive 250 pounds.
Such donated eggs could be used for research into the causes of infertility and also facilitate research in regenerative medicine such as motor neurone disease and Parkinson's disease.
The British Fertility Society (BFS) has voiced concern over fertility patients donating eggs for research and say egg donation for medical research should be decided through individual and fully informed choice, with no coercion and within a rigorously regulated environment.
The Human Genetics Alert (HGA), a secular independent group, say the decision would endanger women's health as the risks involved in egg donation are not justified for just basic research, with no direct benefit to the volunteer.
The process for egg donation for research is the same as for IVF, and involves women taking hormones that boost egg production, this has a risk of ovarian hyperstimulation, which can lead to kidney damage and even death.
However the HFEA also concedes that the majority of such cases are mild and the risks were "easily managed".