Egg Donation and Overcompensation
Egg Donation and Overcompensation
Imagine you’re a twenty-two year old female, fresh out of college. You have a big shiny college diploma from a highly prestigious University hanging in your bedroom, yet are still interning for no pay and looking for your first “big-girl” job. Your apartment, electricity, and cable bills didn’t end when you stopped receiving financial aid, and now you are required to start paying off those loans. You are looking for quick money and spot an ad online looking for a young, intelligent, attractive woman to be an egg donor and receive $15,000 compensation. Would you go for it? Sounds like quick, easy money doesn’t it? Well it’s not; Egg donation is not a one step, in and out procedure. It is a serious medical procedure that involves two phases: Ovarian hyperstimulation, and Egg retrieval. Ovarian hyperstimulation consists of numerous hormonal drugs (shots) in order to make the ovaries mass produce mature eggs, and then these eggs are extracted in the egg retrieval phase through transvaginal ultrasound aspiration, a surgical procedure. These tests, screenings and medical appointments can take up about 60 hours of the Egg donor’s time. (“The Medical”) These advertisements for egg donors can be found anywhere from online forums, newspapers and even agencies that specialize in egg donations such as “The Egg Donor Center” who state that their standard compensation is $5,000 and goes as high as $8,000 depending on where you live, and any unique skills, degrees, characteristics or traits you may acquire. Places like this, for donors who would have to travel, also offer round-trip airline tickets (for two), hotel accommodations (for two), grounds transportation, and daily compensation for food, lost wages, etc… (“Egg Donor Compensation”) It seems that the whole Egg Donation process has turned from a way for women who cannot produce children on their own to start a family, to an extremely money driven system that shells out more cash for
Imagine you’re a twenty-two year old female, fresh out of college. You have a big shiny college diploma from a highly prestigious University hanging in your bedroom, yet are still interning for no pay and looking for your first “big-girl” job. Your apartment, electricity, and cable bills didn’t end when you stopped receiving financial aid, and now you are required to start paying off those loans. You are looking for quick money and spot an ad online looking for a young, intelligent, attractive woman to be an egg donor and receive $15,000 compensation. Would you go for it? Sounds like quick, easy money doesn’t it? Well it’s not; Egg donation is not a one step, in and out procedure. It is a serious medical procedure that involves two phases: Ovarian hyperstimulation, and Egg retrieval. Ovarian hyperstimulation consists of numerous hormonal drugs (shots) in order to make the ovaries mass produce mature eggs, and then these eggs are extracted in the egg retrieval phase through transvaginal ultrasound aspiration, a surgical procedure. These tests, screenings and medical appointments can take up about 60 hours of the Egg donor’s time. (“The Medical”) These advertisements for egg donors can be found anywhere from online forums, newspapers and even agencies that specialize in egg donations such as “The Egg Donor Center” who state that their standard compensation is $5,000 and goes as high as $8,000 depending on where you live, and any unique skills, degrees, characteristics or traits you may acquire. Places like this, for donors who would have to travel, also offer round-trip airline tickets (for two), hotel accommodations (for two), grounds transportation, and daily compensation for food, lost wages, etc… (“Egg Donor Compensation”) It seems that the whole Egg Donation process has turned from a way for women who cannot produce children on their own to start a family, to an extremely money driven system that shells out more cash for
Cited: Eggdonorneeded.com. Web. 3 Oct. 2011 “Egg Donor Compensation”. Theeggdonor.com. The Egg Donor Center, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2011 ”Financial Compensation of Oocyte Donors”. ASRM Ethics Committee Report. Fertility and Sterility Vol. 88, No. 2. P. 305 Aug. 2007. Web. 3 Oct. 2011. Hamm, Danielle. “Payment to egg donors”. IVF News. 5 June 2007. Web. 3 Oct. 2011 Hopkins, Jim. “Egg-Donor Business Booms on Campuses”. USA TODAY. 16 Mar. 2006. Web. 4 Oct. 2011 Padia, Lauren. “Egg donors commit six months to helping infertile couples”. Medill Reports- Chicago, Northwestern University. 10 June 2010. Web. 3 Oct. 2011. Rabin, Roni Caryn. “As demand for donor eggs soars, high prices stir ethical concerns”. New York Times. 15 May 2007. Web. 3 Oct. 2011 “ The Medical Procedure of Egg Donation”. Egg Donor Information Project. Stanford university. N.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2011 Waters, Abbie. “Egg Donation Risks- 7 dangers of donating eggs”. Fertility Nation. n.d. Web. 3 Oct 2011