Paying Women to Donate Their Eggs for Research Is Still a Terrible Idea
By Michael Hiltzik,
Los Angeles Times
| 08. 23. 2019
The truth is that the egg donor market is an unregulated Wild West, and it’s only going to get wilder if limits on payment to donors are eliminated.
Proponents of a proposed law allowing women to be paid to donate their eggs for research say it’s all about equity.
Research subjects in other fields can get paid, they observe. And men can get paid for donating sperm. In California, it’s legal for women to be paid for eggs to assist couples undertaking fertility treatments. But it’s illegal for researchers to compensate women for their eggs beyond reimbursements for direct expenses, such as travel.
A research lobbying organization and Assemblywoman Autumn Burke (D-Marina del Rey) want to change that. The existing rules, Burke says, amount to “100% gender-based discrimination. This is my way of making sure that women are able to participate in [fertility] research and participate in an equitable way.”
This is not the first time this idea has come before the Legislature. Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by former Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla (D-Concord) in 2013, observing that the long-term risks of egg donation are not adequately known and that offering women a cash blandishment to do it was therefore improper. “Putting thousands of dollars on...
Related Articles
The Center for Genetics and Society is delighted to recommend the current edition of GMWatch Review – Number 589. UK-based GMWatch, a long-standing ally, was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Matthews as an independent organization seeking to counter the enormous corporate political power and propaganda of the GMO industry and its supporters. Matthews and Claire Robinson are its directors and managing editors.
CGS works to ensure that social justice, equity, human rights, and democratic governance are front...
By Ryan Cross, Endpoints News | 08.19.2025
Human eggs are incredibly rare cells. The ovary typically produces only 400 mature eggs across a woman’s life. But biologists in George Church’s lab at Harvard University — a group that’s never content with nature’s limits — just got a...
By Katherine Drabiak, Journal of Medical Ethics Forum | 08.07.2025
Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at
National Human Genome Research Institute
Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on children born from pronuclear genome transfer (sometimes called “3-parent IVF,” “mitochondrial donation” or “mitochondrial replacement therapy”) at Newcastle Fertility Center...
By Nicky Hudson, The Conversation | 08.12.2025
