# More 4 Video On Donor Crisis



## Fifebloke (Jan 18, 2006)

Hi

I don't know if a link has been posted for this before but it was a piece first shown on June 2nd

http://www.channel4.com/more4/news/news-opinion-feature.jsp?id=274

Best wishes

David

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## ♥JJ1♥ (Feb 11, 2006)

thanks for the link 
L x


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## Lorna (Apr 8, 2004)

Just watched it.  I liked the woman from the National Gamete Donation Trust, who said the situation was more complex than the change in law.  I must investigate them more, and see whether first impressions stand up.  After all the National Gamete Donation Trust is a government funded organisation.
Everytime anyone said the change in the law is a tiny part of why there are insufficient donors, the Channel 4 interviewer kept forcing the issue back to the change in the law.  At one point the reporter said that compensation levels had dropped, and so had the number of donors, but Channel 4 never expanded on this.  That annoys me.
Pay proper compensation, and allow donors to chose whether to donate anonymously or openly, and there would be a flood of donors.
Lorna


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## Fifebloke (Jan 18, 2006)

Hi Lorna

I think you're absolutely right.  All the law change did was to put off the students that used to do it for fun and a bit of pocket change.  The thought of there being consequences now stops them.

The expenses are a joke.  £10 per visit.  As I live an hour away, I'm pretty sure I actually lost money by donating at Ninewells in petrol, bridge toll and hospital parking charges.  If it were not for the fact that I was unemployed when I donated, there's no way I could have been able to do it at all considering that you can only donate during office hours.

The HFEA wanted to make donation purely altruistic and take into account the rights of any children but the current solution can't and won't work.

And the tests are so stringent as well, meaning that a substantial number of potential donors are unacceptable in any case due to low count, motility or poor morphology or poor thawing characteristics.

Given that each ejaculation provides 4 of 5 vials, even if the donors were paid £100 per visit directly by the recipients, that would mean only £25 per treatment for semen.  Nobody would baulk at that considering that clinics are now charging hundreds per vial.

I appreciate the desire for children to know their roots and I believe that the anonymity issue is not negotiable.

My recommendations would be:

1. Allow recipients to pay donors a decent fee for taking the time and making the effort to donate.

2. Allow donors to donate out of office hours.

3. Allow recipients to supply their own donors without them having to wait for 6 months and still get the full HFEA legal protection of the donor having no parental rights.  This would allow fresh semen to be used for treatment, greatly increasing the potential success rates.

Best wishes

David x


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## SLG (Apr 17, 2006)

Hi David

I have been watching this thread for a bit and felt I needed to reply. Firstly can I say a huge thankyou to you on behalf of all couples going through what my dh and I have been experiencing over the last 8 months since our (or dh's) diagnosis.

We have been lucky enought to buy ten vials of donor sperm from the same donor from our local nhs clinic (who will treat us with it). We have had to pay £1000 to the company (from Harley Street) for the donor sperm. Reading your post that says you only receive £10 per visit I have to say I am totally disgusted that the clinics are doing this ie. keeping all the profit without passing it on to the donor. From what you say for 10 vials you would only receive arond £20!! If you do the maths the profit is totally disgusting ......I would far rather pay our donor the 1000 quid (I happen to know he is a student) than any Harley Street clinic but all the same I am grateful to be in the position of having treatment at all in the current climate.


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