FEARS emerged today that women who pay to take part in a controversial egg-sharing fertility scheme will get preferential treatment to non-paying donors.

Under the deal, offered by a private clinic, donors get free fertility treatment in exchange for giving some of their eggs to another fee-paying patient.

But now it has emerged the paying patients will receive all the eggs if there are not enough to share. The donor will then have to wait a month until more can be collected. And if an odd number of eggs are collected the paying patient will get the extra one.

Today a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salford, the Rt Rev Terence Brain, said: "We are seeing here the unhappiness of the whole system. Once you start going into financial agreements and barter situations or whatever it is then this is what follows.

"We seem to be getting into situations where we haven't properly looked at the implications of the rights and wrongs of what we are doing."

The Manchester Evening News reported angry reaction from pro-life campaigners when the scheme was set up nine months ago. They branded it "revolting" when it was first offered by CARE (Centres for Assisted Reproduction) at the Alexandra Hospital in Victoria Park, Manchester.

The clinic said women have been queuing up to take part since the launch. CARE received 200 calls on the first day, and more than 30 women have now been treated. The clinic aims to see about five or six egg-sharers a month, and up to 60 in a year.

One woman who has taken part is textile worker Julie Ward, from New Mills, who donated her eggs in return for IVF treatment. She produced sufficient eggs for both herself and the fee paying patient to undergo treatment. She is now pregnant and overjoyed with the results.

She said: "They do swaps of hearts and lungs. What I have done is better than surrogacy - I have got eggs, now she has got eggs and we are both happy."

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority had initially looked at banning the scheme. But it has said it believes it can be beneficial to some women.

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