BRITTANY YEAROUT
Perspectives Editor
No. 941 — Multiracial, 5’8’’, weighs 155 lbs, with brown/straight hair, brown eyes, O+ blood type, education in law, and an attorney who is interested in reading and traveling.
Along with a picture of the women as a baby, this type of description, and much more, is listed under donor information from the Genetics & IVF Institute, which offers the largest pool of highly-screened donors in the United States. These women, generally ages 18 to 30, are offering their eggs for money, and lots of it.
And with tuition rising every year, giving eggs in exchange for money has become a trend on college campuses, according to a 2006 article by USAToday, “Egg-donor business booms on campus.”
The average total charges for private four-year universities are $34,307, which is 5.9 percent higher than last year, according to a survey by the College Board.
The business of selling eggs grows as it thrives on college students who are in debt. College students are often scared for what the future holds for them, when they no longer have their parents’ money and are thousands of dollars in debt from school loans. Why not make a quick $10,000? The industry is taking advantage of these women. There are daily advertisements in school newspapers and on Web sites that offer money. “Egg Donors Needed. $10,000,” said an ad in the University of California, Berkeley’s newspaper, according to USAToday. The Graphic has also run these types of ads but now has a policy where it considers such ads unethical and inappropriate.
Harvard business school professor Debora Spar shined light on the issue in her book “The Baby Business.” She writes that people are spending money and making money by selling babies. She also states that this baby business makes about $3 billion a year.
There is a good side and a bad side to this business. The good side is couples who have been unsuccessful in having a baby are able to have a family. The bad or unethical side of this growing business is that these college women are risking themselves to sell a part of their body to some couples that only want the perfect baby. I realize that college women are smart and able to make well thought-out choices for themselves, but not if they are not provided with all the information. The Genetics & IVF Institute resembles a dating service where you can decide if you want a skinny, athletic, intelligent donor or a black lawyer that also has artistic skills.
There is also a concern for the women’s health. And while there are risks, none of them are discussed in the ads.
“Many donors, keen to make a quick buck and confident in their health, pay little attention to the risks involved,” according to a 2007 article, “Golden Eggs: When Donation Funds an Education,” in Newsweek.
Donors go through medical and psychological tests, take hormone-boosting shots for about a month to help stimulate production, and go through a surgical procedure where a needle is inserted through the vaginal wall to remove 10 to 15 eggs, according to USAToday. People think that giving eggs is as simple as giving sperm, but it’s not; it is invasive and intrusive.
Although specialists in reproductive medicine say they don’t have enough information to know the long term risk of drugs being used to stimulate ovulation, some studies do show that these drugs may be linked to the development of cancer, according to Nature, an international weekly journal of science.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine told USAToday that donors can have nausea, diarrhea, shortness of breath, abdominal bloating and a far-off risk of death. Before donating their eggs, women need to make sure they consider the physical risks as well as emotional risks. But, it is hard to take these things into consideration when $10,000 is only a doctor visit away.
There should be regulations to make sure women are fully aware of the dangers when giving their eggs. Ads downplay the health risks, so the clinic must thoroughly explain the potential risks. Also, women in college need to be more careful and realize the baby business is taking advantage of them because most of them need money to pay off their loans. Women don’t forget that giving your eggs isn’t the same as donating an organ or giving blood. You will be donating children, children that may one day come looking for their biological mother.
11-15-2007