http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=261532005

Police probe clinic under suspicion of 'exploiting' egg donors

KAREN MCVEIGH


A GROWING cross-border trade in human embryos was threatened with closure
last night after Romanian police launched an investigation into a clinic in
Bucharest which sends mail-order eggs to British couples.

Fertility groups and MEPs have raised concerns over the clinic, Globalart,
as they believe that money paid to young Romanian women for their eggs
represents a financial incentive which leaves them open to exploitation.

There are currently between 30 and 50 couples in Britain who have undergone
the treatment via a London clinic, the Bridge Centre.

Globalart, in Bucharest, receives frozen sperm from clients outside Romania,
which it uses to fertilise donor eggs. The resulting embryos are then sent
back to the client.

It has already been the subject of an investigation by the Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, after it noticed a rise in the
number of export licence requests from Romania. After an investigation, it
found that donors were being paid between £200 and £300.

The authority - which concluded that the money paid was in line with UK
guidance which stipulates that a donor must be paid only expenses - then
lifted a year-long ban on the mail-order scheme in February.

But fertility experts yesterday described such payments as "exploitative".

Dr Allan Pacey, secretary of the British Fertility Society, said he was
concerned that little was being done to protect donors.

"It's all a bit convenient" he said. "In the UK, we have a shortage of
donors, but is the ethical answer to this to go to a country where money
talks?"

He said the procedure of egg harvesting carried "real risks".

"These women have to undergo a surgical procedure. The drugs that they take
can lead to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome - a condition that is rare but
potentially fatal. What is being done to protect these women?".

A spokeswoman from the Ministry of Health in Romania said that Globalart was
being investigated by the police after reports that it was exporting
embryos. She said that she believed that the procedure could be illegal
under Romanian law and that a complaint had been submitted to the
prosecuting office in Bucharest.

No-one at the prosecution office was available for comment last night.

The issue of cross-border trade in human eggs is the subject of an all-party
resolution to the European Commission today, which calls on all member
states to investigate the trade in embryos, with a view to protecting
vulnerable individuals.

Jean Lambert, the Green MEP for London, said: "It looks as though there's a
growth market here and the European Union needs to examine the need for a
protective action."

Josaphine Quintavalle, from Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "The EU is
focusing on the UK and rightly so. The process of egg donation is getting
such endorsement from the HFEA and the Department of Health and they don't
seem to be concerned about poor Romanian women."

No-one at Globalart could be contacted for comment. However, Professor Gedis
Grudzinskas, of The Bridge Centre, in London, which set up the Romanian
egg-sharing scheme with Globalart, said that he knew nothing of the
investigation.

"I'm rather surprised to hear that," he said. "The HFEA
inspected the centre
and have been granting licences for embryos to be repatriated."

A spokesman for the HFEA said that it could find "no compelling evidence"
that the sums being paid by Globalart represented more than expenses. But he
added that the authority had requested an audit of the expenses given to
donors.

He said: "If we received further applications for export licences we would
look at them very carefully."


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