title: Perspectives of Canadian oocyte donors and recipients on donor compensation and the establishment of a personal health information registry.
abstract: We report the views of 33 women who were involved in an altruistic oocyte donation program about provisions under Canada's Assisted Human Reproduction Act 2004 to prohibit donor compensation and to establish a Personal Health Information Registry. The participants had been either donors of oocytes to a recipient known to them (15) or recipients of such donation (18) through services provided by a clinic in a large Canadian city, and they each participated in a semi-structured face-to-face or telephone interview. Among the 15 donor participants, seven were friends of the recipient, six were sisters, one was a niece of the recipient, and one donor donated twice, once to her sister and once to a friend. In eight cases the donor and recipient participated in interviews independently. At the time of interview, 11 of the 25 separate cases had resulted in a live birth and one in an ongoing pregnancy, so that "successful" and "unsuccessful" donations were equally represented among participants. While divergent views were reported among and between donors and recipients on an altruistic model versus a compensated model of donation, most participants largely endorsed the establishment of a personal health information registry.
authors.affiliation: University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, England; National University of Singapore, Singapore; Tung Wah College, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blyth
authors.affiliation: Center for Fertility and Reproductive Health, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto ON; Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Toronto ON.
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yee
authors.affiliation: Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Toronto ON.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ka Tat Tsang
mesh_terms: D000533:Altruism; D002170:Canada; D035881:Compensation and Redress; D005260:Female; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D018587:Oocyte Donation; D011247:Pregnancy; D011639:Public Opinion; D012042:Registries; D014019:Tissue Donors