An investigation of women's experiences of an IVF egg sharing scheme for somatic cell nuclear transfer research

这项研究将调查妇女捐赠卵子用于干细胞研究的经验。作为卵子的交换，妇女将得到更便宜的体外受精治疗。干细胞研究对疾病的治疗大有希望。如果能够解决患者排斥来自无关供体的干细胞的问题，这种治疗方法将得到改进。一种称为体细胞核移植（SCNT：也称为“治疗性克隆”）的技术将有助于克服这一困难。需要更多的研究来改进SCNT技术，但人类卵子短缺。因此，提出了这种“鸡蛋共享”方案。该计划已获得人类受精和胚胎管理局的批准。然而，也有人提出了一些关切，包括：反对胚胎实验;担心治疗性克隆会导致生殖性克隆;认为降低体外受精费用是对卵子分享者的不适当诱惑;质疑卵子分享者是否了解他们正在为之作出贡献的研究。因此，至关重要的是，SCNT研究伴随着其潜在的利益和成本的评估。这项研究将提供这样的评估，并提供重要的证据，为决策者，干细胞科学家，生育临床医生和更广泛的社区的审议和实践提供信息。

This study will investigate the experiences of women donating eggs for stem cell research. In exchange for their eggs, women will receive cheaper IVF treatment.Stem cell research promises much for the treatment of diseases. Such treatments will be improved if the problem of a patient rejecting stem cells from an unrelated donor can be solved. A technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT: also known as ‘therapeutic cloning’) will help to overcome this difficulty. More research is required to improve SCNT techniques but there is a shortage of human eggs. Therefore this ‘egg sharing’ scheme has been proposed. This scheme has been approved by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. However, concerns have been raised, including: objections to embryo experimentation; fears that therapeutic cloning will lead to reproductive cloning; views that reduced IVF fees constitute an inappropriate inducement to egg sharers; questions whether egg sharers understand the research to which they are contributing. Therefore it is vital that SCNT research is accompanied by evaluations of its potential benefits and costs. This study will provide such an evaluation and supply vital evidence to inform the deliberations and practices of policymakers, stem cell scientists, fertility clinicians, and the wider community, worldwide.