Risk vs. Reward: Two womens health care professionals offer insight to the dangers of egg harvesting

An April 25th article in the Golden Gate Xpress about donating eggs raises important issues for young women considering this option. It reminds us, too, of an email sent to an SFSU faculty member in September 2017 asking that she inform her students about how young women could provide/sell their eggs to UCSF’s Center for Reproductive Health.

Unlike many other requests for eggs to help infertile women become pregnant, this email pitched directly to the pocket book. Students can donate up to six times for the hefty sum of $10,500 each time, it told the professor. The money, it said, can help students pay their tuition and other expenses.

This is not an appeal made to the students themselves. Instead, it solicits professors to use their authority and influence (and email lists of students) to encourage young female students to bolster their finances with a decision that could adversely affect their health. It is a deeply troubling request for faculty members to abuse their positions of power and trust.

The email makes no mention of the risks of egg extraction...