Motivations of oocytes donors

Oocyte donation is a complex situation that requires the applicant couple to deal with the presence of the donor in the history of the child conception. Accepting the eggs is not the same thing than accepting the donor. Her place in the child's life depends on how his parents will accept her phantasmal reality beyond her real person. Paying attention to the story told by the donors on their motivations may help parents internalize this conception to three. We show from two clinical observations, that the generosity of donors is connected to personal issues that do not relate to unborn child or its parents. If there are two mothers in oocyte donation, they are not really in competition because there are also two children: the child conceived through donation is that of the project of the couple, the child to which the donor thinks, is and will remain in phantasmal domain, i.e. linked to the personal history of the donor. We also show that the psychological interview fully responds to the donor expectations when it seeks to highlight her motives. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.