Women undergoing IVF to donate eggs for stem cell research in return for reduced treatment costs

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is to fund a research proposal from a team at the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI) for a project to find ways of improving the efficiency of therapeutic cloning - a technique which would allow scientists to create patient-specific stem cells and develop regenerative therapies for many debilitating conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and Parkinson’s disease.

This project will involve the MRC reimbursing part of the treatment costs of women undergoing IVF at the Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life and who choose to donate some of the surplus eggs produced to be used in the research.

The proposal, submitted by Professor Alison Murdoch and Dr Mary Herbert, was deemed ethically acceptable by the MRC Council following advice from the MRC’s Ethics Policy Advisory Committee. While there are ethical issues in providing payment for treatment of people who are participating in research, and this is not normally MRC policy, in this case the women would be taking no additional risks to their health by providing surplus eggs for research. In addition, it was accepted that this would be the only approach that could provide the number of human eggs necessary for this ground-breaking research. A number of conditions are tied to the research going ahead. As well as ensuring that all the right safeguards are in place to protect participants, the MRC decided that there should be an independent social science study undertaken alongside it in order to learn from women’s experiences and to inform future research involving egg donation and payment of IVF treatment costs.

The research plans had already been licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the UK body with the formal responsibility for licensing such work, and had received local ethics committee approval.

“Earlier this year, the Medical Research Council’s Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board approved Professor Murdoch’s research grant application, pending consideration of the ethical issues involved, particularly the proposal that women who wished to share their eggs for research should be reimbursed part of the costs of their treatment. On the face of it, this decision was counter to the Council’s policy on payment for participation in research. However, the MRC Council has recognised this as an exceptional case,” said Professor Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive of the MRC.

“We acknowledge there are a lot of uncertainties about women’s attitudes to egg-sharing but, rather than delay important research to improve the efficiency of therapeutic cloning until such information is available, the MRC will fund the accompanying social science study,” added Professor Blakemore.

It is important to stress that the present proposal by Professor Murdoch is extremely unusual for several reasons, and the MRC regards this as a special case that should not establish a precedent for other cases, even if they appear similar.

“All embryonic stem cell research is fraught with ethical considerations. A recent survey conducted by the HFEA has shown that when the potential of this research is spelt out to the public, people are largely supportive. It is our hope that our cautious and reflective approach will continue to assist public understanding of the science and the ethical issues involved,” said Professor Genevra Richardson, who sits on the MRC Council and chairs the MRC Ethics and Policy Advisory Committee.

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