Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Egg Share Donors: Can Women Consent To Share Their Eggs?

The thesis explores the lived experiences of egg share donors in the United Kingdom (UK) and in particular, has examined the extent to which they are able to consent to becoming an egg share donor. Specific emphasis was given to exploring the factors that motivated their decision-making in view of the criticism egg sharing schemes have met with since their emergence in the early 1990s.

Egg sharing provides women who are themselves undergoing assisted reproduction treatment (ARTs) with the opportunity to share their eggs with up to two recipients(s). The donor‘s treatment costs are subsidised by the recipient(s). Thus some women are able to access cheaper, expeditious treatment. Advocates perceive the schemes as ‗win-win‘. Conversely, critics challenge egg sharing on both psychosocial and ethical grounds.

The thesis conveys the accounts provided by a self-selected sample of seventeen women recruited via two online infertility support websites and a charitable organisation. Hermeneutic phenomenology and the voice-centered relational method (VCRM) of analysis were employed to assess women‘s motivations to donate and their ability to provide informed consent. Four asynchronous e-mail interviews and data collected from an online self-completion questionnaire were utilised in order to enable the experiences of egg share donors to be revealed.

Drawing extensively upon philosophical, social anthropological, social philosophical, sociological, and social psychological literature, the study demonstrates the complexities associated with the decision to egg share within the context of the UK regulatory framework for ART provision. This includes existing empirical accounts of egg sharing.

The thesis describes how it is one of the first to examine the experiences of egg share donors since the removal of donor anonymity in the UK in 2005. Significantly, it makes an original contribution to current understandings of the experiences, motivations, ability to consent, and post-treatment implications for egg share donors.