Not Enough Info on Egg Donation Risks, Critic Says

The Pro-Choice Alliance for Responsible Research said today that this week's Institute of Medicine report on the risks of egg donations shows "how little scientific data exists about the health risks of egg retrieval."

Susan Berke Fogel, coordinator of the group, made the comment in connection with the document that resulted from last year's conference prompted by the California stem cell agency. She said in a statement:

"By suggesting that researchers must have thousands of women’s eggs now, despite the critical absence of safety data, the report does women a great disservice. A more responsible conclusion would be to call for:
1. Research endeavors that do not require egg extraction procedures solely for research purposes; and
2. Research that will better define the risks of multiple egg extraction, so that meaningful informed consent will be possible. This will serve not only women who may want to donate eggs for research, but women who now undergo these procedures as part of infertility treatments."

The full text of the statement can be found below. It did not appear elsewhere on Web at the time of this posting.