Letter: Donor dilemma

Your report relating to the new public consultation on whether to significantly raise the present £250 "compensation" to sperm and egg donors for fertility treatment (17 January) is interesting.

This would, it's hoped, increase the number of donors who are in very short supply. Indeed, at one stage in the recent past, only a single sperm donor existed for the whole of Scotland.

However, this seems to contrast very significantly to blood donation in Scotland, where thousands of altruistic donors exist and where no real compensation is necessary.

Thus, the first question to be asked is why there are so few sperm and gamete donors in comparison with blood donors. The second is whether it is ethical or responsible to just give more money to one set of donors in order to overcome their complex inhibitions.

(Dr) Calum MacKellar

Scottish Council on Human Bioethics

Morningside Road

Edinburgh