What will it take to get women to donate their eggs for stem cell research? It’s a new and important question, now that Harvard researchers are starting projects to clone human embryos and generate patient-specific stem cell lines. A few other groups around the world are trying to do the same thing.

Instead of relying on already generated embryos from IVF treatments (not exactly in short supply), researchers will need women to donate eggs specifically for research. These women won’t benefit directly from the research but they’ll take on the risks of the hormone treatments. And Harvard won’t pay them. A Boston Globe article today explores this question and the risks women face in being egg donors.

Assuming that women will be well informed of the risks and all of the ethical questions will be properly addressed, the next and perhaps most important question is:

What if women decide the risk is not worth taking? What will happen to the field of stem cell research if scientists can’t secure a steady, reliable supply of high-quality eggs to work with? What will stem cell scientists do then? Will it slow the field down? Are there enough other promising avenues of research that won’t require such donated eggs?

I may be jumping the gun a bit, but I wonder if stem cell scientists lie awake at night worrying about this.