CGS-authored
To Pay or Not to Pay
Imagine two women sitting in a waiting room -- one is a store clerk, and the other is an investment banker -- preparing to donate their eggs for a particular type of stem cell research.* There are some who think that payment could coerce women, especially those who are low-income, to undergo the invasive procedure.** Marcy Darnovsky, the executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, says that restricting payment can help prevent "the emergence of a market in which predominantly poor women are the ones who wind up selling their eggs."
Others insist that women are perfectly capable of weighing their options, and that egg donors should be financially rewarded for their time and trouble. UC Hastings law professor Radhika Rao contends:
Imagine two women sitting in a waiting room -- one is a store clerk, and the other is an investment banker -- preparing to donate their eggs for a particular type of stem cell research.* There are some who think that payment could coerce women, especially those who are low-income, to undergo the invasive procedure.** Marcy Darnovsky, the executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, says that restricting payment can help prevent "the emergence of a market in which predominantly poor women are the ones who wind up selling their eggs."
Others insist that women are perfectly capable of weighing their options, and that egg donors should be financially rewarded for their time and trouble. UC Hastings law professor Radhika Rao contends:
[E]veryone else involved in the production of human embryonic stem cells is entitled to compensation. The researchers who invest intellectual capital and the companies and universities that invest financial capital will surely share in any profits ... so why not those who provide the human capital in the form...