Egg donation

[BlueSilver23]

Hello! Been on these boards a while after having egg collections and have been considering what to do in the event of death or incapacity. Bit niche and morbid I know so not sure if anyone will have an answer.

So I signed the forms stating I didn’t want to donate my eggs for research purposes (don’t like the idea of them being experimented on) but if I didn’t use them I think I’d like to know they could be donated to women who need them rather than just thrown away. I am under 35 and healthy so hopefully the eggs could be viable for someone should I not be able to use them. However there didn’t seem to be an option for this on any of the forms. Has anyone ever consented to this in the event of death or incapacity or something similar? Is there such a mechanism in the U.K. or elsewhere? Thanks!

You have to go through a formal process of egg donation - you can't just agree to do it on the existing forms when you have treatment for yourself as there is a process of counselling as well as a lot more medical history and testing required.

During my treatment I queried why DH form gave consent for me to use embryos in event of his death but he couldn't use them in the event of mine. I was told it's something to do with the fact that legally the woman who gives birth becomes the mother irrelevant of genetically/Biologically who is the mother thereby taking that away from me whereas legally the father is always the father no matter who gives birth

So there is no process for saying that your eggs can be used for donation free of charge etc if you don’t use them? Instead they must be thrown away and destroyed? That seems a terrible shame and waste of potential life when there are so many people needing donor eggs. The laws on matters of fertility really are behind the times aren’t they?

@cantcomplainabouttheweather The issue over who is the mother in these cases is a tricky one isn’t it? Reading up lots of other issues like surrogacy (which is the opposite issue - they can keep the baby even if not the biological mother?) and issues of how transgender people fit into this law etc. But still if the women has happily donated any leftover eggs (meeting donor criteria of course) then I’d hope that would be still be similar to the legal process of egg donation anyway. I’d imagined a sort of ‘egg bank’ similar to a sperm bank! There is a process for ‘egg sharing’ which is similar to what I was thinking so you’d hope the law covering this would allow donation of any ‘leftover’ eggs that would otherwise be destroyed. Oh well. Just seems a shame to throw anyway such a precious resource if the women wants to donate. Very interesting area of law nevertheless.

There is a sort of "egg bank" but it's usually done with express intention at point of egg collection rather than afterwards although I must admit as I don't personally agree with egg (or sperm) donation then it's not an area I've read up on as extensively as others areas

@BlueSilver23 ask your clinic I signed to say OH could use mine in the event of my death or mental in capacity and I signed the same.

We didn't want to do research either. I asked briefly about what would happen if we were both to dye and they said there is s process but it's very unusual for someone to need an Egg and a sperm donorso to need full embroyos but some clinics do, do it and we could discuss it if we wanted too. We haven't yet but we will- they said there was more tests- genetics etc and as I'd had ET by the tie I asked we could discuss this at a later date. So it's worth asking.

@PMAmostofthetime I don’t have a partner so it wouldn’t be consent for a specific person but I suppose it’s worth an ask! Does seem strange there isn’t a protocol for this situation.