"If you could increase the chance of reproducing beautiful children, and thus giving them an advantage in society, would you?" This is the question posed by Ron Harris, creator of www.RonsAngels.com, an online auction for the genetic eggs of supermodels. Bizarre as it may sound, the concept of motherhood going to the highest bidder is only one aspect of the increasingly complex egg donor industry.
Due to the advertisements placed in campus newspapers, including the Daily, promising tens of thousands of dollars to educated women with high SAT scores and attractive features, college students around the country are familiar with this phenomenon of the egg donation industry.
According to Harris's site, there are over six million infertile women in the United States, and many seek egg donors so that they can give birth to and raise a child, even though that child is not biologically their own. Many future mothers, however, don't want to risk raising the child of a woman with "bad genes," so they seek out women with specific characteristics that they find desirable in a person, in the hopes that these traits will be passed on to their offspring.
By advertising in college newspapers, agencies intend to reach a specific demographic, and prospective parents are apparently willing to pay for their particular tastes: advertisements in the Daily promise upwards of $10,000 for willing egg donors, while the Harvard Crimson carried an ad placed by a couple willing to pay $50,000 for a blonde egg donor with SAT scores over 1,400.
The Tufts campus is clearly crawling with hundreds of qualified specimens (although agencies generally require donors to be over the age of 21). But how do Tufts students feel about donating their eggs to an unfamiliar couple?
Lecturer Ronnee Yashon teaches a course at Tufts entitled "Genetics, Ethics, and Law." The course, offered through the ExCollege, includes a unit on reproductive assistance. During the class, students offer their personal opinions regarding the possibility of egg and sperm donation.
"When I talk about sperm donors, the guys in the class laugh and talk about it like it's a joke, saying 'Oh yeah, maybe I'd do it, given that much money,'" Yashon said. "But the women in the class, they absolutely think more carefully about that, about what it means to be a mother. I feel that the men in general don't think about that when they donate sperm."
Another deterrent may be the invasive procedure and month-long process necessary to donate eggs. Donor candidates must first be screened through a series of visits to a doctor, including a physical and gynecological exam. Candidates must also provide a medical and family history, blood and urine tests, and undergo a psychological evaluation.
After acceptance into the donor program, donors take a series of fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries to produce many eggs at one time. In the next weeks, donors undergo frequent medical tests, before the final surgery in which the eggs are removed from the ovaries.
Compared to the limited amount of paperwork and 10 minutes of masturbation required of a male sperm donor, the procedure for female egg donors is very extensive. Some students have found, however, that the procedure and possibility of motherhood is worth the money and/or the satisfaction received from helping a desperate couple.
Freshman Julie Hanlon does not consider egg donation outside the realm of possibility. "[I'd do it] if I were really poor or if I needed the money for college," she said. "There's no way I'm going to use all of my eggs; someone else may as well have them."
Yashon remembers one student who did in fact donate eggs during her senior year at Tufts, nearly eight years ago.
"She just did it because she wanted to help someone," Yashon said. "She didn't know them, but she wanted to help anyway. She donated eggs twice, but both times, none of them took. At the time she felt depressed that she wasn't able to help [the couple], but now that she's older, I think she thinks maybe it's better."
Others feel that given specific circumstances, they might consider egg donation. "I wouldn't do it for money, or some random project," sophomore Shanti Sattler said. "But for someone I loved or really cared about, I might."
Other students maintain that they would not consider it at all. "No, it is too invasive," senior Vanessa Williams said.
The majority of students, however, seem to be most reluctant to donate sperm or eggs because of the possibility of anonymous parenthood.
"I want to know exactly where my little franchises are running around," freshman Peter Zaroulis said.
Junior Jeremy Setton agreed. "I don't want lots of my little children around the earth that I don't know about," he said. "Plus, it would weird me out to donate sperm, for obvious reasons."
