The race is on for human eggs for the cloning researchers in the U.S. It was bound to happen. The gripe goes, it is not fair that the IVF clinics can pay women to donate their eggs (get that slight of hand . . . "pay" women to "donate" eggs), but the cloning researchers can't pay for eggs. They are limited to the leftover eggs that are donated to them - which of course comes no where near the number of human eggs they want to do their research.
On one level it make sense that if you can pay women to donate eggs to help make babies, then why can't you pay them to donate their eggs for research? Of course the rub for me is that we shouldn't be doing this anyway, anyhow, for any amount of money. We are playing with fire here.
Sadly, I am worried that the practice will change and cloning researchers will be allowed to pay for "donated" eggs. And I would imagine that young egg donors, who are already told that this is safe, or that all procedures carry some amount of risk to them, will most likely opt to "donate" their eggs to research vs. the IVF clinic. Why? Because then the egg donor could donate her eggs on her schedule and not be strapped to the cycle of the infertile woman and she won't have to worry that children will show up on her doorstep one day and ask, "Are you my mother?".
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You make an interesting point here, but women who want to "donate" on their own schedule will probably be able to donate to frozen egg banks as well. I can't speak for all donors, but I wouldn't have donated for the sole purpose of created research opportunities.
I don't know a lot about the criteria that researchers use to select their eggs, but I suspect it's different than the criteria most infertility patients use when selecting their donors. It seems that researchers' demand could bring a different set of egg donors into the market that (arguably) would tend to be more profit-driven and, as a result--here's the concern, more likely to discount the risks entailed in the donation process.
The primary reason young women donate their eggs is for the money. Julia Derek and others have been quite candid about this fact. If the money is removed egg donors will not be lining up to give away their eggs. That has been the complaint at Harvard - since they can't pay for the eggs they've had a hard time finding women to donate. Fertility clinics would be in the same position if they were no longer allowed to offers $1000s of dollars.
Egg freezing has yet to really take off. It's costly and why settle for frozen eggs when you can have fresh. Cloning researchers and fertility clinics "grade" the eggs looking for morphology and overall health, wellness, shape, characteristics of the eggs - and want the better eggs. And fresh eggs are better than frozen eggs (just like our groceries! fresh is better than frozen!)
I think you minimize the children created out of donated eggs/sperm realities. As more and more children grow up and come of age, and begin searching for their biological parents, identity, medical history etc. and as laws move away from anonymous sperm and egg donation - this will be a factor if all things are equal. And I do believe given the choice sellings eggs for research will have an impact over selling eggs for babies.
I am no more satisfied that Julia Derek as an authority on this point than I am. We both speak from our own experiences and the experiences of our friends and acquaintances that have donated. As I think you've argued previously in this blog, there is a need for empirical data that tracks not just who donors are (it really irritates me that the CDC annual reports refuse to track donor data while they put so much effort into scrutinizing what happens to our eggs once they are passed to the doctor/clinic/recipient) and why they donate, but what happens to donors after they go through the donation process (whether it is a success or not... Calla made a great point about this in the clip you recently posted). Longitudinal data is needed.
I know that egg freezing is yet to take off and have read some of the research, but I have also sat in many a conference room with different embryologists who are chomping at the bit to start their frozen egg banks. Some businesses, like Fertility Extend, are already assisting clients in freezing and banking their own eggs for future use. The Donor Source is actively preparing a business model that will help them to establish frozen egg banks through various clinics. I don't think the opportunity to bank eggs (that could be bought by recipients at lower prices) is that far off.
You're probably right that I minimize the donor/resulting children issues. This is because I have an ongoing relationship with the recipients and children that resulted from my own donation.
I have been reading your blog for some time and feel that you represent yourself as an advocate for egg donors. This is wonderful and much needed. Having said that, I provided these comments not to criticize you or your cause, but to provide a different perspective; because you often paint donors with broad generalities I do not identify with, having been a donor myself.
Sorry about that first, mangled sentence. I meant to say:
I am no more satisfied that Julia Derek _is_ an authority on this point than I am.
Julia's story is not authoritative but I do find it quite insightful and instructive. Added to the many other stories, Calla's, Jennifer Schneidger's daughter Jessica Wing, Angela Hickey's daughter, Jacqueline Rushton etc. and you begin to build an evidentiary case for the short and long term studies needed.
Re: egg freezing - this does beg the question, why aren't the US trends moving in the minimal stimulation/natural cycle direction as they are in the UK and Europe? Hyperstimulation is harmful. I am thinking that egg freezing will continue to encourage the dangerous practice of hyperstimulation and multiple egg retrieval. I doubt people will go the "One Egg at a Time" natural /minimal stimulation route if they are going to pay to freeze/store their eggs. And egg freezing typically relates to women who don't need an egg donor, but are holding off on childbearing for career/waiting for mr. right kinds of reasons.
Perhaps b/c of the cause I am involved in, I hear from many egg donors who rarely tell me success stories, but find this to be a safe place to tell me how things have gone terrible wrong. It's quite sad to talk to these young women who are not all willing to go so public as Calla and Julia.
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