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Gov. Jerry Brown is considering a crucial bill (AB926) on human egg donation. The bill would enable payment to women - as research subjects - to have their egg cells, or oocytes, extracted. A move toward recognizing the market conditions of tissue trade is a step in the right direction, but it deeply misses what is at stake.
The fertility industry recommends that donors be paid between $5,000 and $10,000 for eggs. This figure is based roughly on what sperm donors are paid, though sperm donation involves a magazine and a cup, while egg extraction involves hormones (sometimes many rounds), local anesthetic, potentially severe short-term complications, and unknown long-term consequences. This comparison serves the in vitro fertilization industry.
Certainly one shouldn't trust an industry to set the price for its raw materials. This faulty reasoning has resulted in the great forests of the Pacific Northwest's conversion to toilet paper. As the paper industry thought wood pulp should be cheap, so the lucrative fertility industry thinks young women's eggs should be cheap. In that sense, I applaud the decision to draw...
The fertility industry recommends that donors be paid between $5,000 and $10,000 for eggs. This figure is based roughly on what sperm donors are paid, though sperm donation involves a magazine and a cup, while egg extraction involves hormones (sometimes many rounds), local anesthetic, potentially severe short-term complications, and unknown long-term consequences. This comparison serves the in vitro fertilization industry.
Certainly one shouldn't trust an industry to set the price for its raw materials. This faulty reasoning has resulted in the great forests of the Pacific Northwest's conversion to toilet paper. As the paper industry thought wood pulp should be cheap, so the lucrative fertility industry thinks young women's eggs should be cheap. In that sense, I applaud the decision to draw...