“The Human Egg Market”
February 19th, 2007 by Peter
…is the front page teaser for an article in today’s Courant:
As more older moms look for help getting pregnant, younger women have become increasingly willing to part with their eggs. Some do it to help relatives and friends, or from a sense of altruism, but others openly acknowledge money is a big factor in their decision, prompting critics to worry that they’re helping drive an unregulated market for human tissue…
The money is seen as compensation for time and trouble. Among other things, donors learn to inject themselves with hormones and, eventually, have a needle inserted through their vaginal wall so eggs can be harvested.
“Everyone does it for the money,” says Dziura, the egg donor in New York. “No one would do that for free – maybe for your sister, but not for a stranger.”
In 2005 Connecticut passed a law committing up to $100 million of public funds to embryo-destructive research. But that law did at least include an FIC-supported provision forbidding the sale of human eggs so as to protect women from exploitation. Sadly, the exploitation of a “human egg market” appears to be occurring in other contexts.
That law, by the way, was titled “An act permitting stem cell research and banning the cloning of human beings.” We noted at the time that the bill actually permits cloning. Those who disagreed should check out the Courant’s fawning days long profile on local stem cell scientist Jerry Yang. The title of the series? The quest to clone.
