Egg Donation Regulation? What Should We Do?

Recently as last year, a physician from Arizona had begun lobbying in front of Congress to regulate egg donation. This is in response to the fact that her own daughter, who donated her eggs several times, died of colon cancer at a young age. Now, I met this woman personally at a conference in Chicago earlier this year, and I do sympathize with her; however, I was unable to find a direct correlation between her donation and the cancer. I must note that my investigation was only cursory at best.

With that in mind, how are we to resolve this issue for this donor and for all other donors? As of right now egg donation is not regulated beyond the FDA testing and the ASRM guidelines that are in place to “guide” everyone.

Additionally, the field of Assisted Reproduction is not required to hold on to any of the medical records for any egg donors following the completion of their egg donation cycle. I will note that this Arizona doctor is suggesting that Congress create a national egg donor database where medical records and other information on the egg donor will be kept for future children, as well as for the donor herself if she suffers any complications or the like.

Now, even though this national egg donor database seems like a great idea, could it not also cause problems of its own? For example, will fewer women be willing to donate their eggs if it is not completely anonymous? Will there become waiting lists for egg donors who are willing to make this information known? How far will this database go? Will donors become completely known or will they be given an identifier where their medical information is only known? What are your thoughts?