UK study will reimburse egg donors for costs of in vitro fertilisation

doi:10.1136/bmj.39339.361181.DB

BMJ 2007;335:581 (22 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.39339.361181.DB

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UK study will reimburse egg donors for costs of in vitro fertilisation

Susan Mayor

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Women will be reimbursed about half the cost of their in vitrofertilisation in return for donating "surplus" eggs for stemcell research, in the first study funded by the UK Medical ResearchCouncil (MRC) that will pay participants.

The MRC announced last week that it is funding a research proposalfrom the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI), basedin Newcastle, to find ways of improving the efficiency of therapeuticcloning. This technique is designed to create stem cells specificto a patient that might eventually be used to treat conditionsin which new cells could be therapeutic—such as diabetes,heart disease, and Parkinson's disease.

Out of the funding of £470 000 ( ${euro}$ 680 000; $950 000) forthe research, the MRC will provide £150 000 to reimbursepart of the cost of treatment for women undergoing in vitrofertilisation at the Newcastle Fertility Centre and who donate. . . [Full text of this article]