Italy is launching an “Egg Sharing” campaign “to convince Italian women to donate a few oocytes for infertile couples”. The women targeted in particular by this campaign are “those on the homologous fertilisationlist [1]”. These women who have “already been subjected to hormone treatments” “do not need to be enrolled in new protocols and be signed up as ‘good potential donors’”.
Apart from “the treatment, which is particularly stressful for the female body and which puts off some potential donors”, the lack of financial compensation would serve as a barrier when it came to donations from Italian women. Also, faced with the “oocyte crisis”, the Italian Health Minister “mentioned the possibility of modifying the criteria” to “encourage Italian women to ‘donate’ their gametes”.
Faced with a shortage of oocytes, some private centres are even “importing gametes from abroad” but this practice “generally incurs costs that are too high for public bodies”.
Gènéthique note: In France, The Agence de Biomédecine (Biomedicines Agency) is also talking of “compensating” gamete donation and started a similar campaign in early June to encourage gamete donation.
[1] IVF carried out with the couple’s gametes.
Le Quotidien du Médecin (28/08/2015)