Israel bans imports of fertilised ova

British Medical Journal 8sep01

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich Jerusalem

Starting 1 October, infertile Israelis who want to be parents will no longer be able to import frozen fertilised ova from any foreign country, because the health ministry fears that they might be contaminated with infectious diseases.

Ministry legal adviser Mira Huebner and ministry adviser and gynaecologist Dr Mordechai Halperin said that in vitro fertilisation procedures abroad may not be safe and women receiving implanted embryos could be infected with HIV, hepatitis B or C, or other diseases.

Because of the severe shortage of donor eggs in Israel, some women have been going abroad to get donor eggs and have them fertilised by their partners’ sperm in commercial fertilisation centres in those countries. Most of the centres in the USA and western Europe probably observe procedures that test for infectious diseases, said Huebner, but some do not. The risk of transmission could be high in eastern European countries such as Romania and Latvia, she said.

The ban was supposed to be enforced immediately, but Knesset (parliament) member Yael Dayan, of the Labour party, who heads the committee for advancement of women, won a short delay after arguing that it would cause irreparable harm to women who were in the middle of fertility treatment.

Despite the shortage of donor ova in Israel, women prefer to have fertilised eggs obtained abroad implanted here because the procedure is available as a national health insurance service and they have more confidence in Israeli fertility experts.

Women who lack fertile ova of their own are waiting for the passage of a bill, expected when the Knesset returns in October from its summer recess, to expand the supply of locally obtained donor ova. The bill, prepared over 11 months and approved by the rabbinical authorities and political parties across the spectrum, will allow young women to donate eggs for altruistic reasons.

The donors would get compensation from the recipient of around $2000-3000 (£1370-2000) for their time, loss of income, and discomfort, but no other money may pass between them.

The new rules will replace an existing law that bars donations of ova by any woman who is not undergoing fertility treatment herself; this was instituted over 15 years ago to prevent sales of ova. But the limit created a shortage of eggs, and currently more than 2000 women are waiting for donations.

The new arrangement will include a computerised registry of genetic information controlled by a judge to prevent a brother and sister produced by in vitro fertilisation from eventually getting married. The databank would also provide the children with data on any potentially harmful inherited conditions.