Genesis International Egg Donation and Sperm Donation Centre in Malaysia and Australia

[Angelica Cheng]

Good morning, here is a link to Genesis International Egg and Sperm Centre. We specialise in Asian donor gametes and are happy to work with Fertility clinics in Singapore. All our egg and sperm donors are worked up in line with Australian and U.K legislation. Take a look at our website, we have over 30 egg donors currently available and offer great guarantees.

About Us - Genesis International Egg And Sperm Centre

Genesis International Egg and Sperm Centre is a reputable donor egg, sperm and embryo Centre with a comprehensive donor database, specialising in Asian gametes. Our aim is to help create opportunity for you to achieve your dream of creating and growing your family. OUR VISION, MISSION AND...

eggandspermcentre.com.au

Egg Donors - Genesis International Egg And Sperm Centre

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[Angelica Cheng]

Best results are obtained by using the IVF lab affiliated with the egg bank, which recruited the egg donor and froze her eggs. IVF patients should avoid using frozen donor eggs that are transferred to their clinic from an external egg bank. This is because the thawing protocol must be matching and compatible with the freezing (vitrification) protocol (somewhat analogous to a lock and key). Only the same IVF lab that performs both the freezing and thawing processes can ensure this, to attain best IVF success rates. Please see advise form an American fertility specialist, Dr. John Jain, in the video link below:

Singapore faces legal and ethical challenges with sperm and egg donation

In recent year, Singapore has seen increasing utilization of IVF...

bioedge.org

Singapore faces legal and ethical challenges with sperm and egg donation

In recent year, Singapore has seen increasing utilization of IVF and other new assisted reproductive technologies, similar to the trend in many developed countries worldwide. One consequence of this is an increasing number of children being born from sperm and egg donation here. However, there are as yet many unresolved legal and ethical issues pertaining to the rights of donor-conceived people and regulation of IVF donation in Singapore.
One contentious issue is the importation of donated frozen sperm and eggs into Singapore from foreign commercial donor banks for the treatment of some infertile IVF patients. There is cognitive dissonance in this case, because commercial trading of donated sperm, eggs and embryos are prohibited by healthcare regulations in Singapore, with strict laws restricting monetary payment of local sperm and egg donors.
In fact, this could represent a contradiction and contravention of statutes within the Human Cloning and other Prohibited Practices Act (2004), as well as Revised licensing terms and conditions on assisted reproduction services imposed under Section 6(5) of the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act [CAP 248] (30th December 2019). For example, section 13 of the former explicitly prohibits commercial trading in human eggs, human sperm and human embryos; while section 5.48 of the latter explicitly states that there shall be no buying and selling of embryos, oocytes and sperm by licensed assisted reproduction centers in Singapore.
The recent decision by the Singapore government to permit social egg freezing from 2023, will likely result in an accumulated surplus of unused frozen eggs available for donation to infertile IVF patients. Indeed, studies conducted in Australia and Israel have confirmed that most women who freeze their eggs, don’t eventually utilize them. At best, it is estimated that only 1 in 5 patients will utilize their frozen eggs in IVF treatment.
The donation of unused frozen eggs faces different ethical issues compared to the donation of fresh eggs. For example, prospective donors of unused frozen eggs would have already spent a substantial sum of money on medical fees upon freezing their eggs; whereas in fresh egg donation, the medical fees are usually borne by recipient patients rather than donors. Hence, there is a more convincing case and pressing need for compensating donors of unused frozen eggs; which should be more appropriately viewed as reimbursement of medical fees, rather than undue financial inducement and commercial egg trading.
Another key difference is that prospective donors of unused frozen eggs tend to be much older compared to fresh egg donors, at the time of donation. This would drastically lower their chances of conception with their own eggs after the donation process. Hence, it may be necessary to mandate that such older women should have at least one child of their own, before being allowed to donate their unused frozen eggs, so as to prevent any future regret.
Yet another ethical issue is the need to make recipient patients aware that there are significantly lower IVF success rates with frozen versus fresh eggs, despite advances in vitrification technology for egg preservation, lest they get a “raw deal” after spending so much money on medical fees. Additionally, there are also inherent conflicts of interests faced by fertility doctors and clinics in encouraging and convincing former patients to donate their unused frozen eggs, because additional medical fees will be earned upon performing the donation procedure on other patients.
A policy decision, still under consideration by the Singapore government, which could have implications for donor-conceived offspring, is the possible establishment of an adoption register to facilitate contact between adopted children and their birth parents in the future. This followed the recent passing of the new Adoption of Children Act (2022) by the Singapore parliament, which made it compulsory for prospective adoptive parents to attend a disclosure briefing, which will equip them with relevant skills and knowledge to tell their child the truth about his or her adoption.
The rationale is that when adoptees suddenly and unexpectedly learn the truth about their parentage, everything that they believed about themselves and their self-identity might crumble and fall apart. This may result in the adoptee feeling that whatever the adoptive parents have told him or her up to that point was a lie, which could lead to estrangement between parents and children. Moreover, because many genetic diseases can potentially be inherited, it is absolutely crucial for adoptees to know and understand their family medical history, because such information can potentially be life-saving.
Indeed, those conceived by sperm or egg donation face exactly the same situation as adoptees, and by a similar logic, there should also be mandatory disclosure briefings for prospective sperm and egg donors, as well as recipient IVF patients. Numerous psychological studies and news reports have attested to similar psychological and identity issues facing both donor-conceived people and adoptees. To maintain legal and ethical consistency, if an adoption register is established to facilitate contact between adoptees and their birth parents, an IVF donor register should also be set up. This would thus accord the same legal rights of adopted children to donor-conceived offspring.
In any case, the notion of sperm and egg donor anonymity is gradually becoming obsolete in an era of widespread DNA testing and online genomic databases. The advent of cheap mail-order DNA testing kits and associated online genealogy and ancestry websites, have increased the possibility of donor-conceived offspring inadvertently learning the truth about their parentage via DNA matching with blood relatives on such publicly-accessible online genomic databases. Hence, it is imperative that prospective sperm and egg donors in Singapore be counseled and warned of the risks of being unexpectedly found and contacted by their genetic offspring in the future through such means, even though their donation was originally intended to be anonymous.
In conclusion, there are currently many unresolved legal and ethical issues pertaining to sperm and egg donation in Singapore. There is a pressing need to resolve such issues soon, via the enactment of appropriate laws and regulations, due to the anticipated surge in the number of donor-conceived offspring within Singapore in coming years.

 

[Angelica Cheng]

Please share your experiences with foreign egg donor / donation agencies and individual freelance egg donors.

At a local private fertility clinic that I consulted, a nurse hinted to me that I can secretly use a Malaysian, Thai or International egg donor agency to discreetly send an egg donor to Singapore. But payment must be kept secret. The donor and the recipient couple must sign a form declaring that the donor is unpaid and donating her eggs altruistically to us.

The nurse also hinted to me that the doctor and fertility counselor may suspect or secretly know that we are using a foreign agency and paying the egg donor, but they will be willing to 'close one eye' and look the other way. After all, the signed declaration form stating that the donor is unpaid absolves the doctor and IVF clinic from any legal liability for any secret payment to the donor. All legal liability (criminal perjury and bribery) will now fall on the recipient couple and the egg donor.

Additionally, the nurse also warned me against using individual freelance egg donors who offer their services online, as there is no money-back guarantee. For example, freelance egg donors may renege on their agreement after receiving some payment, and it would be difficult for me to sue her to return my money, as the payment was illegal in the first place and that I would only implicate myself in an illegal transaction if I were to commence legal proceedings. Moreover, it is rather difficult to monitor and ensure freelance egg donors regularly follow the painful and tedious procedure of hormone injections required for ovarian stimulation.

She also pointed out the advantages of using a foreign egg donor agency instead of an individual freelance donor. For example, most egg donor agencies will get a coordinator to accompany the donor on her travel to Singapore, who will ensure that she injects herself punctiliously with fertility hormones during the ovarian stimulation cycle. Many agencies will also give you a new replacement donor free-of-charge, if no eggs are retrieved, or if the donor gets sick and backs out half-way. Furthermore, the agency coordinator will also coach the egg donor to say the right things to the fertility counselor, since it is compulsory for the donor to receive counseling before the egg donation procedure.

In hindsight, I realized that all these must actually be the doctor's idea, and that he was using his nurse to relay such information to me, so as not to breach the medical professional code of conduct and ethics. All legal liability will be on us, since we have signed the form declaring that the egg donation is unpaid and altruistic. The clinic and IVF lab will be free of any legal responsibility for the secret payment, once the appropriate declaration forms have been signed by us and the donor.

The above text was adapted from the following website:

Egg Donation Options And Choices Of IVF Patients In Singapore

These are the various options available to women in Singapore who are considering egg donation. The post Egg Donation Options And Choices Of IVF Patients In Singapore appeared first on theAsianparent - Your Guide to Pregnancy, Baby & Raising Kids.

sg.style.yahoo.com

 

[Angelica Cheng]

https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/egg-donors-payment-ban-can-create-a-black-and-a-grey-market

Egg donors: Payment ban can create a black and a grey market

We are facing a brave new world with the advent of scientific breakthroughs such as the "three-parent" technique where a baby is born using DNA from three people. This is just one of many examples of new reproductive technologies to come, which will likely result in an insatiable demand for donated eggs. If not managed carefully, this can potentially lead to exploitation and abuse of both patients and donors.

Currently in Singapore, health regulations explicitly forbid women who donate their eggs from receiving payment for their contributions; and there has to be a completely altruistic transaction between the donor and recipient. However, the recipient patient is allowed to pay for the cost of reasonable expenses incurred during this process, such as travelling costs.

Such stringent regulations, together with the ban on social egg freezing (where women freeze their eggs when young and fertile, and keep them for future pregnancy) and the increasing trend of late marriages and motherhood, will boost the overwhelming demand for scarce donor eggs. Already, increasing numbers of local patients are seeking such fertility treatment abroad, as reported in The Straits Times a few years ago.

Banning payment of egg donors will not stop commodification, nor will it lead to a more ethically and morally acceptable situation. Instead, the combination of scarce supply, high demand by desperate patients, cash-strapped female university students, Internet technology and increasing globalisation and outsourcing of medical services, will inevitably fuel a black and a grey market for donor eggs.

This is best exemplified by the current situation in other jurisdictions that have banned commercial transaction of donated eggs. In China, for example, there have been tabloid reports of under-the-table payment for egg donation being made to vulnerable schoolgirls and university students by desperate patients, either through illegal brokers or via Internet websites. Reportedly, the amount of payment depended on the academic qualifications and physical beauty of the prospective egg donor.

Similarly in Australia, where most prospective egg donors connect to patients via the Internet, there have been stories of bidding wars in under-the-table payments to the most desirable egg donors. It was reported that one grateful couple "gifted" some dental work to their egg donor.

In Singapore, patients are usually required to seek and find their own egg donor, who may be a relative, close friend or even complete stranger. The pertinent question is whether under-the-table payment to egg donors can be prevented by the current system of donor screening and counselling put in place by the Ministry of Health. Could there also be other undue inducements, such as expensive dining and luxury hotel stay for donors sourced from abroad?

ETHICAL ISSUES

There are also ethical issues surrounding the lack of donor anonymity and its consequent psychological impact on both parents and children, if patients were requested to source their own egg donors.

Recently, numerous egg- donation agencies have sprung up in neighbouring countries which have offered their services in sourcing Asian egg donors for immigrant couples based in Western countries.

The usual practice is for a "coordinator" to accompany the egg donor while travelling abroad and "coach" her on passing rigorous psychological evaluation tests for egg donation. It is possible that some may target Singapore-based couples.

Hence, it would be very difficult for doctors and fertility counsellors in Singapore to discern whether prospective egg donors have been sourced through such foreign agencies and offered illegal under-the-table payments. After all, it is not the job of fertility clinics here to police such illicit activities. Perhaps, it may be in their own interest to turn a blind eye, even if they were secretly aware of such goings-on.

COLLUSION BETWEEN DOCS AND FOREIGN EGG DONOR AGENCIES

There is also a possibility of surreptitious collusion between local fertility clinics and foreign egg donation agencies. For example, doctors or nurses may drop a hint to their patients to seek such agencies, if they fail to solicit egg donation from their own relatives and friends.

Besides an outright black market in the form of illegal brokers and under-the-table payment to egg donors, a grey market may also emerge through ethically questionable practices by fertility clinics and doctors.

For example, in many jurisdictions that ban commercial transaction of donated eggs, there are seldom any laws that prevent local doctors from referring or recommending their patients to receive egg donation at foreign fertility clinics, in which they have a financial interest.

Furthermore, many of these jurisdictions also lack regulations that prevent locally registered fertility doctors from travelling abroad to perform procedures related to commercialised egg donation.

Another dubious practice is to encourage patients to freeze all their unfertilised eggs instead of embryos, on the pretext of preventing destruction of human life upon embryo disposal, as well as to avoid legal entanglements associated with divorce or separation. The excess unused frozen eggs can then be altruistically donated to other infertile couples.

It is often the case that patients who had successfully completed fertility treatment feel a deep sense of gratitude to their doctor. Hence, fertility doctors can easily manipulate the doctor-patient fiduciary relationship based on trust and goodwill, to cajole their former patients to altruistically donate their unused excess frozen eggs.

But in fact, because unfertilised eggs always survive the freezing process less well than embryos, the cumulative success rates for patients are diminished. These doctors may even earn additional medical fees from the egg-donation procedure, even though no commercial transaction of donated eggs has actually taken place between donor and recipient.

Because fertility doctors soliciting altruistic egg donation from their own patients usually control the distribution and allocation of the donated eggs to other patients, this can potentially lead to other abuses.

For example, premium medical fees can be charged to unsuspecting patients receiving egg donation, which could in fact mask the sale of the donated eggs. There is no longer a level playing field, because the patient's choice of fertility clinic would now be influenced by the availability of donated eggs rather than the doctor's skill and expertise.

Moreover, fertility doctors controlling distribution of scarce donor eggs may become the target of bribery. For example, desperate patients can offer to sign up for more expensive medical packages that include antenatal and postnatal care besides fertility treatment, in return for priority in receiving altruistically donated eggs.

Hence the Ministry of Health in Singapore should seriously reconsider a system of financial compensation of egg donors with appropriate checks and balances, similar to that implemented for kidney donors.

Rather than pretending that commodification of donated eggs cannot take place with an outright ban on payment to egg donors, it may perhaps be wiser and more prudent to permit and regulate it under a strictly controlled environment.

 

[Angelica Cheng]

Genesis International Egg and Sperm Donation Centre is affiliated with Virtus Fertility Centre in Singapore.

Our Donors - Genesis International Egg And Sperm Centre

At Genesis International our donors are very important to us as they are offering you the most wonderful gift, a chance of parenthood. This is why we look after our donors from the moment they decide to be part of our donor program. Our donors become part of the Genesis International family and...

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