Wesley Smith writes on Second Hand Smoke that there ought to be an outright ban on the a woman’s ability to sell her gametes all together–for fertility treatments, stem cell research, or any purpose at all. He makes this claim that paying women $3000 to $7000 per cycle was troublesome, citing as his reasons health risks and the commoditization of women.
Yet, he argues that altruistic donations of eggs by women would be fine….despite the existence of the same health risks regardless of whether money changes hands or not.
Somehow it seems unjust to me to ask women to undergo what all acknowledge to be a difficult, painful, and for some women risky process to donate eggs–whether for altruistic or other reasons–and at least not compensate her for her time and on some sort of model of “hazard pay”.
So explain this argument to me, Mr. Egg Man, why is it okay to ask women to undertake the health risks for no pay, yet compensation for time or effort would be so horrible as to recommending banning the practice?
Summer Johnson, PhD