Embryo Donation Program

The Surrogacy Lawyer Radio Program:The Challenges of Gamete Donation

Prospective parents who either have used or are considering using egg, sperm or embryo donation are faced with many challenges about disclosure. Should they disclose to family, friends or medical professionals? Should they tell their children, and if so, how and when? Will disclosure change the relationship with their child? What are the ramifications of either course of action? All of these questions can cause great anxiety and distress among donor parents. On the next episode of The Surrogacy Lawyer: Your Guide to IVF and Third Party Family Building, Theresa Erickson, Esq., will be interviewing one of the leading mental health authorities on gamete donation and disclosure: Patricia Mendell, LCSW. They will discuss the pros and cons of disclosure; how and when to tell children, as well as other individuals; the different challenges of the three types of donation; and other complexities of this important issue.

Stanford Pioneers Embryo Donation Program that Considers Conflicts ...

When couples undergo in-vitro fertilization (IVF), they must decide what to do with the embryos left over from the treatment: store them, throw them out or — an increasingly popular option — donate them to research. A new procedure developed by the School of Medicine enables couples to make the decision to donate without interacting with the researchers themselves.

“There is concern that conflicts of interest and influence by researchers and clinicians may play a role in donor choice,” said Christopher Scott, director of Stanford’s Program on Stem Cells and Society . “The Stanford biobank process allows people time to make the primary decision to donate on their own, when it’s right for them. It also allowed us to ask whether donors have preferences as to the type of research they will allow on their embryos.”

A description and analysis of the new protocol was unveiled in last Friday’s publication of Cell Stem Cell.

By adopting this new donation process, the Stanford RENEW Biobank functions as a “middle person” between the patient and the researcher, said Austin Freeman, research manager at the biobank.

Researchers no longer have to solicit embryo donations using their own, disparate consent procedures. Instead, the Stanford biobank — armed with a carefully planned, informed consent protocol — collects embryos from patients nationwide and then distributes these embryos among stem cell researchers at Stanford. This way, the patients’ personal information is protected from the researcher.

The donation process was deployed in January 2008 at Stanford and at 39 associated fertility clinics and three storage facilities in 20 states. Donated embryos were then deposited at Stanford’s RENEW Biobank.

The donation protocol described in Cell Stem Cell is a two-part procedure.

Each year, when couples receive a storage bill from their IVF clinic, they must decide whether to dispose of their embryos or to continue storing them.

Clinics participating in this study offered couples a third option: to donate their embryos to research through the Stanford biobank. As a result, patients can make their decisions in the privacy of their own homes, making a knowledgeable and deliberate choice on their own time.

“Many couples were very relieved to have the option to donate their embryos for research and to participate in the field of stem cell research,” said Tasha Kalista, Stanford’s previous biobank research manager and the study’s first author.

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