Women selling their eggs

Yes, that's the latest proposal from the advocates of embryo stem cell research.

Last month New York became the first US state to allow scientists to pay women for their eggs. Women will be paid between $US5,000 and $US10,000 ($A6,200 and $A12,600) for each egg harvested.

Now Professor Loane Skene, from the University of Melbourne, who was the the deputy chair of the 2005 Lockhart Committee on Human Cloning and Embryo Research, is recommending that Australian women should be paid for their eggs.

Why? To obtain MORE eggs for embryonic stem cell research.
She says women have to be given drugs and have invasive surgery for the eggs to be harvested - so should be paid!

We must remember that the eggs would be used to create embryos - the stem cells are then harvested and the embryos killed. In addition, there are serious health risks to the women who undergo these invasive procedures.

The federal government will review the embryonic stem cell legislation in 2010 - including payments for egg donations.

Loane Skene said 'If we are going to do this, then we have to have a discussion about it'.

BUT - and it's a big BUT...

That presupposes that Australia IS going to allow payments for eggs.

Prof Skene presented her views at a meeting at the University of Melbourne on Tuesday 7 July - and was interviewed on the ABC.

Bioethicist Nicholas Tonti-Filippini and Associate Professor Bernadette Tobin, the director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney have both strongly criticised the proposal.

The editorial in the Herald Sun strongly opposed payments to women for their eggs.

We oppose any embryo stem research and certainly believe that women should not either be encouraged to donate their eggs or be paid for them. Paying women for eggs will mean pressure is placed on poor women or vulnerable women to sell their eggs, placing them at risk.

Adult stem cells are already providing MANY cures and treatments - 73 - in an ethical way!

Media Articles:

Call to pay cash for women's eggs  ABC, Tue Jul 7, 2009  
"In the US, women who sell their eggs for stem cell research are being paid up to $10,000 (AAP: Yang Zongyou, file photo)
Audio: Calls to pay women to give eggs for stem cell research (The World Today)
"A law professor is calling for women to be paid for donating their eggs to medical research.

Women should be paid for eggs: academic  - SMH, July 7, 2009
"Women in Australiawho allow their eggs to be harvested for embryonic stem cell research should be paid for the procedure, an academic says. Professor Loane Skene, from the University of Melbourne's faculty of law, argues the surgery required for egg extraction is different to blood or sperm donation. "It's not like giving blood," she told AAP..."

Cash for selling women's eggs for stem cell research proposed
Herald Sun, July 8, 2009.
"WOMEN could make money by selling their eggs for stem cell research under a proposal by one of the pioneers of Australia's stem cell regulations..."