Trading the Golden Egg

There is a shortage of donor eggs in Australia, driven (inter alia) by age-related infertility, the family creation needs of same-sex couples, and the emerging needs for donor eggs in the context of mitochondrial donation. We explore the ethical, legal and social implications of different strategies to promote egg donation, focusing particularly on strategies that involve payment. We distinguish between three distinct approaches to offering payment – reimbursement, compensation and inducement – that are often conflated. We explain how these categories relate to Australian laws and regulations, and determine how various proposals for increasing supply should be categorised. We close by making some concrete proposals for how payments can be used to promote egg donation while avoiding financial inducements