The American Society of Reproductive Medicine has said it supports restricting the business of donating human eggs for cash. However, in the same breath, the American Society of Reproductive Medicine recommends $5,000 for the service.
What does the service entail? Visits to a doctor, the discomfort connected with being injected with medication, the many physical check-ups and finally the removal of the egg under anesthesia are the stages they must pass through before a woman is paid.
A play on words is a play on words. However, in some cases, a woman can be paid up to or over $50,000. College students around the nation are finding relief in this method of acquiring income for school and other purposes. Are we facing a new generation of biologically orphaned babies and donors who can’t comprehend what in the hell they are truly doing? Or facing the fact that nothing truly matters anymore when money is involved?
The U.S. is one of the few industrialized nations where payment for egg donation is legal. As a result, women from other countries who want to become pregnant using donated eggs come to the U.S. These women have increased demand for egg donations and clinics are advertising on the Internet and in college newspapers to attract their target donors: attractive and intelligent female college students.
These women may decide to donate eggs in exchange for $8,000 or more. Donors take hormone enhancement shots for about a month to stimulate production. Ten to 15 eggs are removed with a needle from the donor, under sedation, and combined with sperm to create an embryo that is later inserted into the would-be mother’s womb.
The pressure on college students is likely to grow. An increase in embryonic stem-cell research programs across the U.S. in the past few years has created a new market for more donors as scientists use eggs to find medical cures.
The number of paid donors is unknown because no one keeps statistics for the flippantly regulated industry. The fertility industry is regulated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under a 1992 federal law that requires clinics to disclose success rates of treatments, including births from donor eggs. The CDC does not control prices paid to donors. However, there are no accurate records to date or none disclosed.
I wonder how many of these women envision that they are actually giving away their children. It’s not enough that they have no idea who ends up with the DNA/eggs that were taken, but conception and relinquishing the rights to a child if one is conceived is unconceivable. It’s as bad as men donating sperm for money. The Internet is not only a culprit for finding the donors who readily hand over their eggs but also it’s the culprit of the children these eggs produce, who are finding their biological mothers; for the sperm donors, they’re finding their fathers. A swab of saliva to the online DNA lab, roughly nine months for results to return, acquiring info regarding birth date, hometown and surname, commissioning an investigation and, presto, you have your biological mother or father.
So imagine having finished college and starting a new life with a husband or not, and one day out of the blue there is a knock on your door or your phone rings and it’s your donor children. What would you do? It seems innocent in college and looking at $8,000 or $50,000 in your bank account could be great at the time but your $8,000-$50K is now standing on your doorstep calling you mama or daddy. Would that day be worth it? On the flip side, for women who are unable to conceive, I can understand wanting to have a child that came out of your own body. What is so wrong with going to a family member, relative or truly close friend? Also, what about adoption?
College students need to truly take heed to what the ultimate outcome of their actions may possibly be. Paying off student loans or buying a brand new car may not be worth it in the long run if your past decisions come back to haunt you one day when you least expect it. Students may want to rethink donating eggs and sperm, for that matter. We are living in a cynical world. Everything is for sale and there is nothing people won’t sell for money. That’s the awful truth.
If a person needs money bad enough or if the task to receive the money is easy, it will be looked at seriously, if not indulged in without hesitation. Morals, hard work and thought have gone out the window for so many people. Society continues to tempt children, adolescents, young adults and grownups with carrots that are too good to be true. Unfortunately, by the time one realizes the deal they’ve made, it’s always much too late. Angela Ardis is the author of “Inside a Thug’s Heart,” “My Mind’s Poetry” and the upcoming “The Block,” “Cadence,” “Bushel of Goodness” and ”Second Time Around,” and “Untitled.” To contact her, visit www.AngelaArdis.com or send emails to: info@AngelaArdis.com
