Jewish egg donors

Hello, my husband and I have just decided to use donor egg after going through various failed IVF attempts with my own harvest… We’ve been informed about our options with our clinic, but are interested in finding a new center, just to find out what options do we have out there, just in case u know… The thing is, we’ve seen various banks/clinics that promote jewish egg donors as separated group from “normal” egg donors, so we don’t understand what’s the exclusivity behind this… can anyone explain this to me? Is there anything to be concerned about?

Dear Susanne,

For the majority of Jewish intended parents, heritage and genetic lineage are vital, as traditionally a child inherits “Jewishness” through the mother, in accordance with the Jewish Law.

Even though for some prospective parents, religion is not an important issue when using donor eggs, for others, finding a jewish egg donor is essential to continue with a donor-egg IVF treatment. Indeed, in these cases, they might feel the baby does not belong to their ethnic background and heritage won’t be present in the baby if the egg donor used was not Jewish, too.

This also depends on the movement followed by the IPs, either the Conservative and Orthodox, or the Reform. While the former says that the egg donor must be fully Jewish, the latter considers that, as long as one of the intended parents is Jewish, the baby will be considered Jewish as well.

This is the reason why egg banks and fertility clinics look for Jewish egg donors too.

Related topics: Is it true that Jewish women cannot donate their eggs?

I hope I have been able to help,

Best wishes