Selling Your Eggs For Cash: Is Egg Donation Ethical If Done Only For The Money?
During these difficult financial times, more and more women are turning to egg donation as a way to make some extra cash. But is it right to donate your eggs just for money?
Good Morning America reported on the sudden rise of women looking to be egg donors. (Click here to watch the clip on egg donors.) According to the report, there has been a 30 to 40% increase in the number of women looking to be egg donors over the past month. Egg donors get paid anywhere from $4,000 to $10,000 for a cycle, and that’s a lot of cash, certainly an incentive when money is tight.
Technically, women are not paid for the eggs they produce. If one woman produces 10 eggs, and another produces 20, they are both paid the same amount. The money an egg donor receives is for the time and inconvenience of the experience.
Egg donors go through much of the same treatments that women going through IVF treatment experience, not including the embryo transfer, of course. Egg donors need to take fertility drugs, give themselves injections, and go through egg retrieval. There is no doubt in my mind that these women should receive compensation for what they go through.
But it’s one thing when a woman donates her eggs because she knows someone with infertility or wants to help those who can’t have kids by themselves. What about women who might be doing this only for the money? What if their heart isn’t really into it? I’d think that the emotional impact of egg donation is different when done for altruistic reasons, as opposed to strapped-for-cash reasons.
Of course, all potential egg donors are screened, and you’d hope that they wouldn’t take an egg donor who is only doing it because of a desperate need for money. Still, it’s a concern, given the sudden increase. It’s hard to believe that the economic crisis just happens to coincide with more people feeling the urge to help infertile couples.
What do you think about this? Take our poll and let us know.
Also, feel free to leave a comment below, or a post in this thread on our forums. What are your thoughts?
Comments
I voted “I’m not sure” because I can see a woman doing this if she’s been laid off, or the main income in her family has been lost, and the bucks are really needed. What I would protest is women doing it just extra dough to buy stuff they don’t really need, like lotto tickets, cigarettes, booze. But there probably isn’s a way to filter candidates for that stuff.
They may be screened for health issues, but they are NOT well educated about the potential risks for their own health. I had a former student trying to find out information about egg donation and the vast majority
of the information out there is from the perspective of the recipient. It’s very difficult for individuals to find unbiased medical information about the potential risks of donation. I think that the process,
particularly with the sums of money involved, is bordering on becoming unethically coercive. And I say this as a woman who devoutly wants to have children, but may not end up being able to for various reasons.
I think it depends on the individual person. With the physical aspects aside, for different people, donating eggs could be either be a major emotional thing or as unemotional as donating blood depending on the person’s philosophical view.
I’d hate to think of people who feel emotionally about egg donation doing it because they feel forced to do so by economic circumstances. But for people who don’t have that view and who view it as a simple medical procedure to be forgotten as soon as all is said and done, I don’t see any real problem with it as long as they are fully informed about everything that will happen.
I don’t know how I feel on the subject. I am a IVFr. I did IVF/ICSI in 2006 and am now considering donating my eggs to help another couple out there who can’t and want a baby, and also the financial aspect of it to save it for another cycle of IVF. I think it’s okay if they are REALLY needing the money. I think that women who are not familiar with infertility or just donating to get some cash really need to think about what all is involved. It’s a very emotional process no matter who you are and what your situation is. I feel anyway.
i wont to sell my eggs so where sould i go or who do i talk to.
I think it is because while its a magical thing for the people who want the eggs, its just a surgery and a community service for the egg donors. I wouldn’t mind selling my eggs, but thats because I’m a starving college student that has no use for them and I think the question of ethics comes up because the people who get the eggs are usually well off and don’t understand the plight of people with limited means.
I don’t think women should donate their eggs with out thinking about the serious consequences. Not enough or nearly any research has been conducted to determine the long term effects of donation. Women, please educate yourselves on this topic before considering this. A child is a product of this procedure. A child that has half of you genetic make up. Think about the long term consequences.
Me and my girl were talking about the great opportunity science provides women nowadays to rake in a little extra money in tough times. So I came across this sight and I was floored by the idea that donating for monetary reasons wold be amoral. What is wrong with profiting from what I understand to be a intense proses? What is amoral is ever expanding welfare state that is creating the biggest entitlement generation in history. Or do these people think the child is gonna have the horrible characteristic of wanting to get paid for providing a valuable service.
Im considering selling my eggs but would like to find out for information and how to go about it. Can anyone give me advice of where I can get this?
I just got done donating my eggs last week, litterally Tuesday was my egg retrieval, I gained 5lbs of water weight and was really bloated and hormonal with mood swings for 3 weeks, but it was worth it! THe couple has a chance to carry a child of their own, and I was compensated for all those injections and 15 visits for ultrasounds and bloodraws $7,000. I originally did it for the money, then as i continued the process, i was really excited for them, and felt awesome that i could give a gift like i was. I paid off my student loans which i was drowning in, and they finally have a family! Its a win/win situation. Of course we do it for the money first but once you are into it, you feel inpowered. I plan on doing it again, since i am blonde hair blue eyed, im in a higher demand and flattered that i was chosen. ~current and future egg donor!
Oh ya, you dont want to be emotionally attatched, it just makes it harder at knowing that you have a biological child out there, you have to be strong and think of it as a gift and a return! seriously, i did it.
AND YES I WAS WELL EDUCATED ON ALL POTENTIAL RISKS