Bioethics Discussion Blog: Getting The Eggs for Stem Cell Research: The Risks and the Ethics

REMINDER: I AM POSTING A NEW TOPIC ABOUT ONCE A WEEK OR PERHAPS TWICE A WEEK. HOWEVER, IF YOU DON'T FIND A NEW TOPIC POSTED, THERE ARE AS OF MARCH 2013 OVER 900 TOPIC THREADS TO WHICH YOU CAN READ AND WRITE COMMENTS. I WILL BE AWARE OF EACH COMMENTARY AND MAY COME BACK WITH A REPLY.

TO FIND A TOPIC OF INTEREST TO YOU ON THIS BLOG, SIMPLY TYPE IN THE NAME OR WORDS RELATED TO THE TOPIC IN THE FIELD IN THE LEFT HAND SIDE AT TOP OF THE PAGE AND THEN CLICK ON “SEARCH BLOG”. WITH WELL OVER 900 TOPICS, MOST ABOUT GENERAL OR SPECIFIC ETHICAL ISSUES BUT NOT NECESSARILY RELATED TO ANY SPECIFIC DATE OR EVENT, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIND WHAT YOU WANT. IF YOU DON’T PLEASE WRITE TO ME ON THE FEEDBACK THREAD OR BY E-MAIL DoktorMo@aol.com

IMPORTANT REQUEST TO ALL WHO COMMENT ON THIS BLOG: ALL COMMENTERS WHO WISH TO SIGN ON AS ANONYMOUS NEVERTHELESS PLEASE SIGN OFF AT THE END OF YOUR COMMENTS WITH A CONSISTENT PSEUDONYM NAME OR SOME INITIALS TO HELP MAINTAIN CONTINUITY AND NOT REQUIRE RESPONDERS TO LOOK UP THE DATE AND TIME OF THE POSTING TO DEFINE WHICH ANONYMOUS SAID WHAT. Thanks. ..Maurice

FEEDBACK,FEEDBACK,FEEDBACK! WRITE YOUR FEEDBACK ABOUT THIS BLOG, WHAT IS GOOD, POOR AND CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT TO THIS FEEDBACK THREAD

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Getting The Eggs for Stem Cell Research: The Risks and the Ethics

The need for human eggs to be used in stem cell research has posed an ethical challenge regarding how to treat those women who allow their eggs to be removed for the research purposes. Eggs have been obtained after stimulation now for a number of years as part of the invitro fertilization process which enables the woman to have her eggs fertilized and then implanted in her uterus to attempt a pregnancy or to have the eggs donated to another family for reproduction purposes. In the case of current stem cell research, the eggs would not be used for producing a pregnancy but to create the stem cells and the tissues under study. Therefore, the woman’s participation would yield neither immediate personal benefit nor any immediate benefit for another family. Presumably, the woman’s participation would be motivated by altruism and most likely some financial benefit. The questions include whether this is sufficient to overcome the potential risks to the woman’s health that comes from this donation. What are the risks?

The risks include the ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) which is related to the hormones used to stimulate the ovary to produce more eggs. Between 0.3 and 5% or perhaps up to 10% of women who undergo ovarian stimulation to procure eggs experience severe OHSS, which can cause pain, and occasionally leads to hospitalization, renal failure, potential future infertility, and even death. Later and long term effects of hyperstimulation on fertility and hormone dependent cancers are also being considered. The incidence in healthy short term donors is felt to be less. Rare operative complications can occur from retrieval of the eggs from the ovary.Finally there is a possibility that psychological issues may appear with regard to the screening, the procurement process and after procurement.

And what is the benefit? Again, there is no immediate benefit to the healthy woman. In later studies, the eggs may be obtained from women who themselves or family members are ill from a genetic abnormality or who have the abnormality without symptoms. Studies with these eggs may lead to a more immediate benefit to the donor or their family.

The question also arises as to whether those women who donate who are not ill but which involves a surgically invasive procedure, should be treated as patients or as research subjects. The confusion here in defining them is because clinical research subjects are usually treated by a drug or procedure whose outcome is unknown. Their participation is experimental. The process itself, for which the egg donation women may be at risk, is not an experiment and the outcome of ovarian stimulation and egg procurement is known. Indeed, the experimental part of the research is that carried out with the procured eggs. There is also the question of whether the women should be considered analogous to a living organ donor. The difference, of course, is that the procured organ is used immediately for the benefit of a specific patient, while the eggs obtained from these women are not of immediate reproductive or therapeutic benefit to anyone. Why are these differences important? Well, it has to do with the ethics of balancing the risks vs benefits to the woman and whether protocols that guide the researchers in the procurement of the eggs should therefore be made more specific to egg donation process itself and perhaps more strict than protocols for other clinical research.

In this regard, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the institution given the responsibility for the oversight and distribution of California funds for stem cell research commissioned the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council to form the Committee on Assessing the Medical Risks of Human Oocyte [egg] Donation for Stem Cell Research in September 2006. The committee organized a workshop and prepared a workshop report of the current state of knowledge of the medical risks of human oocyte donation for stem cell research and CIRM then produced draft guidelines for the procurement and followup process.

CIRM indicated the guidelines are intended to provide institutional review boards and research oversight committees with a set of criteria to evaluate clinical protocols. If you read the summary, you will get a fuller picture of what is involved in the risks to the women who donate their eggs for research and what special precautions are felt necessary to be taken.

The purpose of this thread is to report what our California state stem cell funding organization is currently considering as important in egg procurement for stem cell research. But also I would like to get the view of my visitors regarding the whole concept of egg procurement, not for attempt to reproduce a human being, but for research into curing diseases or injury and also attempting to prevent the appearance of genetic diseases. From what you read, do you think that the benefit is worth the risks? Do you think that more women should be encouraged to participate? If so, should the motivation to participate despite the very slight to mild risk be one of altruism (a sacrifice for the benefit of mankind) or for anticipated financial benefit? Would you find that if most women participated for the cash would this motivation be acceptable? If you could participate, would you? ..Maurice.

5 Comments:

At Sunday, April 06, 2008 8:20:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not to sure would I participate or not, but if times are hard and pennies are short and their are mouths to to feed then the answer would be yes.

 
At Sunday, April 06, 2008 9:02:00 AM, Blogger Maurice Bernstein, M.D. said...

Kath, would your participation be only for the money? Or do you find any merit for any woman who is financially well off to simply make a donation of a bunch of eggs for research for some other reason? ..Maurice.

 
At Monday, April 07, 2008 1:17:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

People do all sorts of dangerous things for money; explain the risks, make an offer and let women decide if they want to participate. (For the right money, I'd do it.)

Equating egg donation and organ donation seems like a stretch. An egg isn't an organ any more than a sperm is. That sounds like an excuse to avoid paying women because it's illegal to pay for donated organs in the US.

Is there ever a question about paying male sperm donors?

Why is it that the medical establishment doesn't think women are capable of making decisions about our bodies, about risks and benefits?

 
At Monday, April 14, 2008 3:26:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The risks that you have mentioned is a sure deterrent. I wouldn't go for it. But it is so easy to exploit the financially challenged women, who are willing to gamble with their health for the sake of money. I don't think anybody is going to come forward purely based on altruistic intentions.
By the way, you might want to take a look at our post - What's Wrong with Stem Cell Research? that discusses the pros and cons of it.

 
At Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:27:00 PM, Anonymous Ozumbo Mcferine said...

We should have more openness in testing and funds availability to the organizations for treatments like stem cell research . Stem cell treatments are going play a major role and change way of medical sciences in the near future.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home