Stem cell treatments have the potential to revolutionize medicine. It could be possible to develop stem cell-based treatments to address both diseases (including chronic heart disease, Type I diabetes, and Parkinson's disease) and tissue damage (including spinal cord damage, brain damage caused by a stroke, or damage to heart muscles caused by a heart attack).

In California, in recognition of this potential, Proposition 71 set up a 10-year, $3 billion program to build facilities for stem cell studies and to fund research with the ultimate goal of helping to develop therapies based on stem cells.

This research, however, would require a steady supply of stem cells, particularly human embryonic stem cells. Those embryonic stems cells are collected from developing human embryos that are created from eggs—or oocytes—harvested from the ovaries of female donors.

The oocyte donation process is not without its risks to the donors, and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine contracted with the National Academies (NAS) to assemble a workshop that would bring together experts from various areas to address the questions of what is known about these risks, what needs to be known, and what can be done to minimize them. In response, the NAS formed the Committee on Assessing the Medical Risks of Oocyte Donation for Stem Cell Research that held a workshop in San Francisco on September 28, 2006, devoted to those issues.

Based on presentations and discussions that took place at the workshop, the Committee published a summary and synthesis of the current state of knowledge of the medical risks of human oocyte donation for stem cell research. The workshop and its summary focused on the scientific and medical data (e.g., on the potential risk of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome, compromised future fertility, psychological consequences, and increased risk of ovarian cancer), and did not review ethical and policy issues.