editorials

Researchers estimate that one in 10 American couples cannot conceive children on their own, a fact that has given rise to much heartache, a spate of medical research and growing interest in adoption. It has also fueled the growth of a remarkable egg donation industry, whereby one woman gives birth using another woman's ova, as described recently by Star Tribune reporters Josephine Marcotty and Chen May Yee in a series called "Miracles for Sale."

This is welcome news for infertile couples who feel that adoption is not quite right for them. But the industry's stratospheric growth -- it now generates an estimated $3 billion of revenue annually, with thousands of clients and donors using dozens of brokering agencies -- has far outstripped the ability of the law and society to keep pace with fundamental legal and moral questions. What are the rights of a donor, who takes fertility drugs and undergoes complicated medical procedures? What happens if the recipient couple divorces in the potentially long period between signing a contract and giving birth? What if unforeseen genetic problems emerge as a child grows up? Should there be limits on what client parents can pay -- or demand -- when seeking an egg donor?

The Legislature should be thinking about these questions so that Minnesota is prepared for the sort of legal and medical challenges that inevitably will arise. Fortunately, some sharp minds have started doing the thinking for them and have produced several useful suggestions:

• A committee of the American Bar Association has proposed legislation spelling out model contract language for donors and intended parents. For example, donors should be fully informed of the risks of using fertility drugs, and recipient parents should specify what they want to happen with any unused embryos.

• Many lawyers and therapists think professional counseling should be mandatory so that donors and recipient parents can think through the potential emotional pitfalls of, in effect, shared conception.

• Some experts recommend the creation of a national donor database so that the children would be able to find their biological parents, or at least know their own health and genetic history, in case the egg donor agency goes out of business or loses its records.

For now, the egg donation business still seems mostly governed by an altruistic "sister to sister" ethos that gave birth to it in the first place. But as it grows it will almost certainly produce financial, medical and emotional challenges whose outcomes cannot be left to luck or good intentions.