Motivation, attitudes and experience of donation: a follow-up of women donating eggs in assisted conception treatment

✍ Scribed by Dorothy Fielding; Sarah Handley; Lindsay Duqueno; Sue Weaver; Steve Lui

• Book ID: 101283875
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 158 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1052-9284
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1298(199807/08)8:4<273::aid-casp496>3.0.co;2-q

✦ Synopsis

This paper reports a follow-up of 39 women who had donated eggs to an assisted conception unit. Their experience of donation and their motivation and attitudes were assessed. Comparisons were made with a group of semen donors who were attending a second unit. Female and male donors donated for altruistic reasons and neither group wished to have contact with recipients or donor ospring or have their identity revealed. Female donors were more involved in the donation process and more interested in the outcome of donation. They also appeared to be more motivated by `helping' than male donors. The sample of female donors contained a small group of women who were donating to sisters and friends. In comparison with anonymous donors, these women reported more eects upon the family and issues of secrecy and openness were more apparent. The results are discussed in the light of previous studies and the legal framework for donation in the UK. Attention is drawn to the lack of social psychological analyses in this controversial medical area.