Procuring gametes for research and therapy.

In the United Kingdom the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has statutory responsibility for regulating practice in the areas of assisted procreation and research on human embryos. As such it has an almost unique responsibility in the United Kingdom for ethical review of both clinical research and practice in a given field. It is therefore interesting to ask whether it has a useful role to play in resolving some pressing practical and ethical problems which have arisen in both of these areas, viz the lack of supply of gametes (notably oocytes) for both therapeutic and research purposes, the question of the selling and buying of gametes and, finally, the inequality which exists between male and female donors in terms of recompense made for donation of gametes.