The government's fertility regulator has announced that it is considering lifting the UK ban on selling eggs and sperm to try to ease the shortage that they say is driving thousands of couples to go to foreign fertility clinics. It claims it’s decision is based on allegations that clinics in countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, popular with couples unable to conceive naturally, routinely ignore safety guidelines. Women attending there have multiple embryos implanted into the womb to increase the chance of a pregnancy occurring, but unfortunately this also increases the likelihood of multiple births, and so to the health risks to both mother and baby.
Currently, British clinics are banned from paying for eggs and sperm directly, but can pay up to £250 in expenses which hasn’t exactly filled potential donors with an enthusiastic desire to go through with the complicated process of donation. Several different alternative options are now being explored from simply doubling this sum, to copying the system in Spain, where women are paid €900 for each cycle of eggs. The regulatory body is also examining an alternative option: to allow women to be paid many thousands of pounds, enticing them with considerable lump sums, as happens in the USA.
All this makes me rather uncomfortable. There is something intrinsically wrong with a ‘cash for body parts’ situation. Families of organ donors do not benefit financially from their deceased relative’s decision to donate, and blood donors don’t get paid either. I feel that so too should egg and sperm donations be done for altruistic (or egotistic) reasons and not for large wads of cash. I am well aware of the counter arguments; egg donation is far more invasive than giving blood and so deserves some sort of compensation for the time and risks involved. Women need to have their cycles synchronised with the matched recipient and then undergo a two-week course of hormone injections, daily blood tests and ultrasounds until they have produced several ripe follicles. Harvesting those follicles then involves a minor operative procedure, time off work is inevitable and complications can occur. But look at the situation in the USA, where cutting-edge reproductive technologies and infertile couples are providing young women with thousands of dollars for their eggs. Tempting adverts can be seen in college newspapers making donating eggs seem like an easy way to earn money and help meet the demands of rising costs, without any explanation of what actually is involved. More worryingly are the reports that the excess of young women wanting to exchange their eggs for cash is creating a cohort of doctors who are exploiting the desperation of childless couples by offering a ‘designer genes’ service for couples prepared to pay exorbitant fees for the perfect combination of brains and beauty. The higher your exam marks and the better your bone structure, the more your eggs are worth. This terrifies me as it is nothing more than a sordid form of eugenics, selecting those characteristics deemed desirable by society and selecting out those, like homosexuality and being ginger, that aren’t. A genetic underclass will be created of those whose attributes do not meet the high expectations of the prospective parents.
Getting pregnant and having a baby is not an absolute right, as so many women seem to think. Nor is choosing the type of child that you have. Donating your eggs to help others should be a noble, selfless and altruistic act, having total control over the phenotype of your baby is certainly not. It’s selfish and a gross violation of the laws of nature.
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