Ethical issues in ovarian transplantation and donation

The report of the successful replacement of ovarian tissue into a woman from whom it had been removed 2 years earlier raises several ethical questions about the use of techniques to prolong or exchange ovarian function (1). If the reported technique proves to be safe and effective, it will help women who face oophorectomy, radiation, or chemotherapy for cancer to preserve ovarian function and thus reproduce. Although this advance is unlikely to generate the controversies that reproductive innovations such as surrogacy and cloning have, important ethical issues will arise if such techniques lead to premenopausal ovarian storage by healthy women or ovary donation from cadavers or fetuses.