AMA Journal of Ethics^®

Until measures of training and experience can be correlated with patient outcomes, information about a clinic's experience with egg freezing will not be useful in patient decision making.

Lack of protections for egg donors can result in physician conflicts of interest, inadequate informed consent processes, and subpar donor care.

Virtual Mentor welcomes your response to recently published articles and commentaries. Send your correspondence to [email protected].

If the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's recommendations for egg-donor compensation limits have been successful, they violate antitrust law. If they are ineffective, egg donors are not being sufficiently protected against coercion and commodification.

To be best able to respond if third parties in assisted reproduction contracts break their terms, physicians should familiarize themselves with the contracts, encourage all parties to self-disclose, and, failing that, disclose material information to the other party.

Federal regulations governing egg donation fall into two categories: safety testing and truth in advertising. Neither deals directly with informed consent by, for example, specifying what information donors must be given.

A positive right to parenthood obligates others to support a person’s attempt to become a parent. Do physicians have a duty to assist their patients’ procreative efforts, and, if so, in what ways?