Official Title:
Identifying essential information for valid informed consent from egg donors: an international Delphi study
Objective
The main objective of this Delphi study is to achieve consensus among diverse groups of experts on the essential information with which potential egg donors should be informed. This group of ‘experts’ includes women who have donated eggs at least once (‘experienced egg donors’), academics from humanities and medical fields, bioethicists, midwives/nurses, fertility doctors, and lawyers. The study will be conducted in three rounds, during which participants will receive a comprehensive list of information items based on extensive literature review. The result of the study aims to achieve consensus on which information is relevant and morally necessary to obtain valid informed consent from potential egg donors.
Process
The first phase of this Delphi study will consist of a series of information items related to egg donation, divided into broader categories. These information items are developed after extensive literature review, gathering all available information on what a potential egg donor knows and should know. Each information item will be assessed by the experts for relevance using a 4-point scale (‘Likert scale’). Additionally, experts will be asked to provide a dichotomous assessment of the moral necessity of this information (categories and items). Experts will also have an open-text space to share additional comments and insights. Based on the data analysis of this first round, a second round will be formulated. In this second round, participants will be asked to reconsider their previous choices based on the findings from the first round.
The aim is to hold a total of three rounds to achieve consensus among experts on which information is relevant for potential egg donors and which information is morally necessary for them to grant valid informed consent.