WOMEN who donate their eggs for stem-cell and cloning experiments should be paid directly for their contributions to medical research, a leading bioethicist said yesterday.

The risk, time, inconvenience and discomfort involved mean that women who donate eggs deserve financial compensation similar to participants in other scientific research, according to Insoo Hyun, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

While people who take part in scientific trials are paid routinely, financial inducements for egg donation are tightly restricted or banned.

In Britain, direct payments to egg donors are illegal, whether for fertility treatment or medical research, although expenses can be reimbursed. Clinics, however, are allowed to offer discounted treatment to women having IVF if they agree to “share” some of their eggs with other couples.

A centre in Newcastle upon Tyne was cleared last month to start a similar scheme to provide eggs for therapeutic cloning research.

Women who are not already having IVF may donate eggs altruistically only for infertility treatment and not for research, although the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is starting a public consultation about changing its rules.

The donation process puts women at a small risk of ovar-ian hyperstimulation syndrome, which can, in rare cases, cause death. Critics say that it is unethical to tempt women to undertake these risks.

In a commentary for the journal Nature, however, Dr Hyun argues that financial compen-sation is justified. Donors should not be paid per egg, as they are in some American IVF clinics, but compensated for the time and discomfort involved. The situation is comparable to other medical research, such as drug trials, in which volunteers are routinely paid. “If it is ethically and legally permissible for women to offer their oocytes [eggs] for stem-cell research, and if it is acceptable to compensate volunteers for their time, effort and inconvenience when undergoing comparable invasive procedures . . . then there is a strong, presumptive reason to compensate women who provide oocytes for basic research,” he said.

However, Laurie Zoloth, of Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, said that egg donation was similar to organ donation, in which decisions should be made without financial considerations.

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Additional reporting by Hannah Devlin

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