registry- with more than 25,000 members, the dsr has matched almost 7,000 donor conceived people with their egg and sperm donors, as well as with their half siblings. alternate methods of providing an information link between the donor and recipient (both agreeing to stay registered on the dsr) are often provided for in the legal document (referred to as the "egg donor agreement".) embryo donation an alternative to egg donation in some couples, especially those in whom the male partner cannot provide viable sperm, is embryo donation. embryo donation is the use of embryos remaining after a couple's ivf treatments have been completed, to another individual or couple, followed by the placement of those embryos into the recipient woman's uterus, to facilitate pregnancy and childbirth. embryo donation is more cost-effective than egg donation on a "per live birth" basis. another study has found that embryos created for one couple, using an egg donor, are often made available for donation to another couple if the first couple chooses not to use them. psychological and social issues further information: donor conceived people § psychological and social quality of parent-infant relationships quality of parent-child attachment in early infancy has been recognized as a crucial factor of a child's socioemotional development. the formation of a quality and secure attachment is largely influenced by parental representations of the parent-child relationship. concern regarding relationship quality and attachment security in egg donor families is understandable and typically stems from the absence of genetic material shared between the mother and child. in recent years, researchers have begun to question if lack of genetic commonality between mother and child inhibits the ability to form a quality attachment. in a recent study, quality of infant-parent relationships was examined among egg donor families in comparison to in vitro fertilization families. infants were between the ages of 6–18 months. through use of the parent development interview (pdi) and observational assessment, the study found few differences between family types on the representational level, yet significant differences between family types on the observational level. egg donation mothers were less sensitive and structuring than ivf mothers, and egg donation infants were less emotionally responsive, and involving than ivf infants. no differences were found in relationship quality between egg donor fathers and ivf fathers representationally or observationally. due to the developmental implications of forming healthy parent-child relationships in early infancy, the finding that egg donor mothers were less sensitive and structuring towards their infants raises concern about attachment styles among egg donor families, and the impacts it may have on infants' future socioemotional development. telling the child most psychologists recommend being open and honest with children from an early age. groups for donor conceived children make a strong case for the rights of children to have access to information about their genetic background. for donor conceived children who find out after a long period of secrecy, their main grief is usually not the fact that they are not the genetic child of the mother who raised (and, usually, gave birth to) them, but the fact that their parents lied to them, causing loss of trust. furthermore, assuming that egg-donor conceived children have essentially the same reaction as sperm-donor conceived children, the overturning of one's lifelong understanding of who one's genetic parents were may cause a lasting sense of imbalance and loss of control. telling the children that they were donor conceived is recommended, based on decades of experience with adoption (and more recent feedback from donor-conceived children) showing that not telling children is harmful to the parent-child relationship and to the child psychologically. even parents who would normally be extremely reluctant to tell the child should consider telling if any of the following scenarios applies: when anyone other than the parents know about the donation, such that the child might find it out from somebody else. when the recipient carries a significant genetic disease, since telling the child will reassure the child that they do not carry the disease. where the child is found to have a genetically transmitted disorder and it is necessary to take legal action which then identifies the donor. conversely, when the child is being raised in a religion or a culture that strongly disapproves of donor conception (e.g., a catholic country where egg donation is illegal), that may counsel against telling the child, at least until the child is much older and clearly capable of understanding why they were not told earlier and of keeping that information to themself. a systematic review of factors contributing to parental decision-making in disclosing donor conception has shown that parents cite the child's best interest as the main factor they use to make the decision. parents who disclose donor conception to the child emphasize the importance of an honest parent-child relationship, while parents who do not disclose express their desire to protect the child from social stigma or other trauma. health care staff and support groups have been demonstrated to affect the decision to disclose the procedure. it is generally recommended that parents who disclose should do so in age-appropriate ways, ideally starting well before the age of five with a discussion of the fact that their parents needed help to have a child because certain things are needed to make a child—namely, sperm and eggs—and because the parents did not have one of those things, a nice woman gave it to them. families sharing same donor having contact and meeting among families sharing the same donor generally has positive effects. it gives the child an additional extended family and may help give the child a sense of identity by answering questions about the donor. it is more common among open identity-families headed by single men/women. less than 1% of those seeking donor-siblings find it a negative experience, and in such cases it is mostly where the parents disagree with each other about how the relationship should proceed. other family members parents of donors may regard the donated eggs as a family asset and may regard the donor conceived people as grandchildren. donor marketing for a donor to be accepted by an agency and repeatedly used she must be marketable and appealing to the recipients. although egg donation is a significant, life-giving act, the companies participating in this industry still have to operate with an economical mind-set. matches between egg recipients and egg donors are what make the profit for the company and achievable to continue these processes for others. the most sought-after donors tend to be those who are (1) proven (i.e., have donated before and produced a pregnancy from it, proving themselves both fertile and reliable); (2) conventionally attractive; (3) healthy, with good family health histories; and (4) smart, well educated. donor profiles presented on agency websites are their primary marketing tool to find recipients and learn what these future consumers want. on the donor profiles listed on the agency website for recipients, or "clients", to peruse for their desired egg match, "physical characteristics, family health history, educational attainment (in some cases, standardized test scores, gpa, and iq scores are requested), as well as open-ended questions about hobbies, likes and dislikes, and motivations for donating" are included. donors are encouraged to submit attractive photos and are advised of what the recipient finds as desirable. profiles that are at some point deemed unacceptable are deleted, whether it be because their personalities did not stand out or their portrayals were viewed as negative in some way. overweight volunteers for donation are also most often not accepted, not just because of conventional views on physical attractiveness but also because women with a higher body-mass index tend to respond differently (less well) to ovarian stimulation drugs and ivf clinics thus generally recommend that patients not use donors with higher bmis. egg donors also have a higher standard of physical appearance than sperm donors; many sperm donors are not required to provide adult photographs of themselves, or in some cases, any photographs. religious views some christian leaders indicate that ivf is acceptable (provided that no fertilized embryos are discarded in the process). many christian couples who cannot have children thus can go for ivf, with both the husband's sperm and the wife's egg and this is in line with the church's teaching. however, the issue is more problematic with donor eggs. there are also some christian leaders (especially catholic) who are concerned about all in vitro fertility therapies because they disrupt the natural act of conceiving a child where gamete donations, both egg and sperm donations, are seen to "compromise the marital bond and family integrity". and they encourage infertile couples to consider adoption instead. in the orthodox jewish community there is no consensus as to whether an egg donor needs to be jewish in order for the child to be considered jewish from birth. in the 1990s religious authorities said that if the birth mother was jewish that the child would be jewish as well, but in the past few years rabbis in israel have begun to reconsider, which in turn is causing more debate around the world. conservative rabbi elliot dorff has suggested that there are arguments for both sides (birth mother or genetic mother) in religious scripture. dean of the center for the jewish future at yeshiva university believes that any child where the birth mother or the genetic mother isn't jewish should go through a conversion process in infancy, to be sure that their judaism isn't questioned later in life. this is not an issue in the reform community for two reasons. first, only one parent must be jewish for the child to be considered jewish; thus, if the father is jewish, the mother's religion is irrelevant. second, if the mother who carries the pregnancy and gives birth is jewish, reform jews will generally consider that child to be jewish from birth because it was born of a jewish mother.