§ Lord Alton of Liverpoolasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have launched an investigation into recent disclosure that human eggs are being shared or traded in at least one London fertility clinic; and [HL503]
Whether the sharing or trading of human eggs is legal. [HL504]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)A woman may donate eggs to another woman to help her to carry a child. In some licensed centres a woman needing treatment involving in vitro fertilisation may be offered this at reduced cost in return for sharing the eggs she produces with another woman receiving in vitro fertilisation. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority considered egg sharing in 1998 and has kept it under review since then, issuing guidance in 2000 on the provision of consent and the preparation of formal agreements between the parties involved. The HFEA's Ethics Committee is currently considering the arrangements reported at one clinic where a woman gives all the eggs from one cycle in return for later treatment for herself. The conclusions of the committee, and of the authority as a whole, will be communicated to the House and placed in the Library.