Egg Donations, Should Women Be Paid?
Paying for Egg Donations
In an egg donations situation, should a woman who donates eggs to help people with fertility problems conceive a child be able to charge as much as she can get in a free-market transaction? Or are there ethical reasons to limit her reimbursement?
That is the issue raised in a federal lawsuit that accuses two professional societies and the fertility clinics associated with them of illegal price-fixing that limits donor compensation. A federal judge in northern California has ruled that the claim can move forward and certified it as a class action, which could go to trial next year.
Guidelines issued by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology suggest that paying a woman more than $10,000 for her eggs is “beyond what is appropriate” and even paying $5,000 or more requires “justification.”
A vast majority of the nation’s fertility clinics follow these the guidelines. The stated rationale behind them is to avoid offering so much money that donors, especially those who are often young and poor, will rush to contribute their eggs without considering the risks.
This payment system is unfair. However well-intentioned, it favors the fertility clinics, which can keep more for themselves if they pay donors less, as well as the women who pay for fertility treatments. Meanwhile, it shortchanges the egg donors, whose wishes are ignored in the equation. And if there are indeed risks, they can be addressed and mitigated by the clinics and the doctors, who can strengthen their screening and counseling procedures and provide more information.
The money that donors get is meant to compensate them for physical and psychological tests; weeks of hormone injections to stimulate egg production; frequent tests and ultrasound examinations to track the developing eggs; repeated visits to the doctor, and minor surgery to remove the eggs when they are ready for retrieval.
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