A 15 year old Israeli law that has barred all women, other than those undergoing infertility treatment, from donating their ova will be replaced soon by a detailed law that actually encourages such donation, according to a report by British Medical Journal.
The original law was instituted to prevent the sale of ova. Health officials and legislators thought that permitting donations only by those women whose ova were being removed for in vitro fertilization would prevent the illegal sales of eggs. But the law had the effect of severely restricting the supply of donated eggs, with the result that about 2000 women in Israel are now waiting for donated ova, said BMJ.
The shortage even led to the investigation of two leading Israeli gynecologists over allegations that they took ova without permission from women undergoing in vitro fertilization in public hospitals and gave them to patients undergoing treatment in their private clinics, said the journal, referring to a previous report it has published on the case – Albawaba.com
