This commentary was initially posted on July 11, 2013 on the Impact Ethics blog and is reposted here with permission of the author. Visit impactethics.ca
Claire Burns, Raquel Cool and Sierra Falter co-founded We Are Egg Donors, the world’s first self-advocacy group for egg donors, run by egg donors. Here, Claire tells her story and shares her opinions about the egg trade in Canada.
I sold my eggs in 2004, but started the process in 2003. I was 21 years old at the time. At first, I was able to talk openly with the clinic staff about compensation. But, when the Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) Act was passed in early 2004, I was told that I could no longer speak about money with my liaisons at the clinic – they could get fired for even discussing it.
I ended up being paid under the table. A friend of mine met the intended recipient in the lobby of the clinic while I was upstairs having the eggs extracted. As arranged – like some espionage film or blind date – my friend wore a blue raincoat, the other woman had a red umbrella. As I was watching my eggs being sucked out of me on a TV monitor hanging above my head, my friend was handed a manila envelope with $4000 cash in 20 dollar bills. Thankfully, I suppose, there was some form of honour system in place. I sold her my eggs and she did indeed pay, but what recourse would I have had if she hadn’t paid?
While the AHR Act makes it illegal to purchase eggs, financial transactions like the one I was involved with do occur in Canada – they just happen in a clandestine way. In fact, I would argue that the AHR Act has contributed to the creation of a black market where both egg providers and recipients are at risk of being taken advantage of – both at home and abroad.
Canada is different from the United States where there are egg brokerages available for buyers and sellers. I didn’t have this experience – I communicated directly with the buyer via email (“sweetbabydreams21”) and (at least initially) with the clinic. Canadians are now being wooed to travel to the US to sell their eggs. A few weeks ago, a Toronto woman flying to Southern California to sell her eggs asked us what she should say to the border guards if asked about the purpose of her trip. She wanted to know the legal ramifications of selling her eggs across the border. Another Canadian woman had extreme adverse effects from the drugs she was taking. She spoke to the American broker about wanting to stop the process. The broker threatened that if she stopped she’d get no money. I find it troubling that the Canadian government is turning a blind eye to the fact that Canadian women are being medically and emotionally compromised in another country. Where is the accountability?
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The fertility industry in Canada is mostly privatized. The doctors are paid, the nurses are paid, the other clinic staff are paid, and the pharmaceutical companies are paid. The prospective parents are paying. Why, in this very monetized industry, should the woman who provides the eggs – the person who supplies the commodity without which the doctors, nurses and others could not provide the service for which they are paid – do this for free, especially when she is the one to bear any potential health consequences.
In my case, I didn’t react adversely to the drugs and had no complications post extraction. As for any long-term health effects, no one has ever checked up on me. I mean, honestly, is lupron even legal? About a year ago, I tried for a year-and-a-half to get pregnant and absolutely nothing took. I am scared that maybe my egg donation has contributed to me possibly being infertile.
Don’t get me wrong, I was a more-than-willing participant in the egg trade, but if I had known then what I know now – in terms of the non-existent medical research – I would not have gotten involved in this business. To me, the lack of care for the women who provide the eggs for someone else’s fertility treatment is the single most frightening aspect of the fertility industry. The second is that, for the most part, the prospective egg providers are not made aware of the fact that there is no after-care. If more women egg providers would speak up, “we are people, not merely vendors”, then these processes would have to change to account for our health considerations.
In closing, I want to say that I am really glad I sold my eggs. Somewhere out there, there is a nine-year-old boy named Alexander who might have my eyes. That’s amazing.
The problem is not with donating or selling eggs, the problem is with the system that manages the transactions. Egg providers should be empowered. They should know their rights – the right to ask for separate legal representation, the right to informed consent, as well as the right to proper medical follow-up and responsible medical care.
That approach is all very well for empowered middle class white women, but we need to ask ourselves what impact a commercialised industry in egg donation would have on society as a whole.
It would almost certainly normalise positive eugenics, with a premium placed on eggs from genetically ‘superior’ donors (the premium already exists on the black market of course, but think of what will happen when mainstream sales and marketing get a hold of it).
It would also create the risk of semi-industrialised ‘egg farms’ where financially disadvantaged women (e.g. college students) are essentially strip mined for their ova.
Again, this is not necessarily a bad thing – after all a lot of college students now pay their fees through sex work – but do we want to stumble blindly into it by pretending the issue is entirely one of individual choice over transactions involving your own body?
At least with sex work you don’t permanently lose anything – unless you subscribe to patriarchal notions of female honour of course.
Maybe I’m just so squeamish because here in Australia we look to the US practice of commercialised blood donation with distaste and this just looks like more of the same.
I also note that the author only hints at the potential problems of hyperovulation.
It’s not as if this is a risk free procedure.
Agreed. I replied to your comments – you can find my response below. Thanks!
Hi, @cabrogal! I’m Raquel, one of the co-founders of We Are Egg Donors. Thank you for voicing your concerns – I’d like to take a moment to address them.
Our advocacy project is comprised of egg donors around the world, including Australia. Some egg providers in our group part with their eggs altruistically, others for money; some to known recipients, others to strangers; some 20 years ago, some this morning. We are not all white, middle class, or American.
I agree that there is much to be understood about the global implications of such a commercialized industry. I, too, am disheartened by the hyper-commercialized practices of ART in the United States. I personally chose to no longer participate in it (here’s why: http://www.ourbodiesourblog.org/blog/2013/07/egg-donors-create-support-group-for-women).
I’d also like to point out the distinction between transparency and “promoting positive eugenics.”
Once, an egg broker/agency essentially told me that I am not attractive enough for their premier donor program, which openly pays models who donate three times what other donors are paid. Did that feel good, being told that? No. Does talking about that experience promote or normalize such a practice? No.
When I asked an egg broker to connect me with another egg donor, I was told that I could not speak to another donor unless it were a three-way call that included the agency. Our group breaks down the barriers erected, in part, by commercial interests and allows egg donors to connect and advocate for one another. The risks are indeed real and when they happen to us, until now, there has been little recourse — no group dedicated to supporting egg donors’ issues.
Our space welcomes the candid discussion of the complexities of these experiences — without trying to shape them into a “one size fits all” political or commercial narrative. This is also why we do not accept donations from commercial entities that could guide or co-opt these individual narratives.
Not everyone feels the way I do about their own egg donations, nor would I expect them to.
We also provide a still-growing resource page that expounds on the risks of egg donation. If you’re interested, you are welcome to take a closer look at our site (which just launched) and you’re always welcome to contact me at raquel /at/ weareeggdonors.com.
Many thanks for your comments. I hope this message greets you well.
Best,
Raquel Cool
Co-founder, We Are Egg Donors
It did indeed.
Thank you for taking the time and effort to respond.
I’d just like to clarify that it is definitely not the practice of egg donors talking openly about their experience that raises my concerns about positive eugenics. On the contrary I strongly support both the exchange of views and mutual support that your organisation seems to promote and see it as exactly the sort of grass roots group that should be prioritised in public discussion of these issues.
It was the way Ms Burns’ article seems to argue for deregulation of commercial transactions between donors and clients (or agencies) in Canada that concerned me.
When a profitable industry is mainstreamed, advertising and marketing are usually quick to jump on the bandwagon. It is the thought of the marketing megaphone being added to the eugenic discrimination you experienced that prompted my comment.
I definitely concede the high ground of discussion of egg donation to the donors themselves, but do not abandon the field on aspects which I believe impact on us all.
I will certainly listen carefully and respectfully to what egg donors have to say about commercialisation, but unless my concerns are allayed more thoroughly than they have been thus far I will continue to oppose it. (I first took up this particular cudgel against Peter Singer in a public presentation he made in favour of both commercial egg donation and positive eugenics about a decade ago. I often find myself on the opposite side of bioethical debates to Peter Singer).
I will be checking out your site shortly. Particularly the post you link to.
I just read your post.
Oh my.
I can see that I’m behind the curve on this issue. Some of the things I feared would come to pass are apparently already standard practice in the industry.
When I wrote that financially disadvantaged women might be ‘strip mined for their ova’ I felt a little uncomfortable at my own over the top rhetoric (one of my weaknesses), but no more.
And the thought of agencies offering commercial fertility treatment to women whose fertility they may very well have destroyed themselves … well ain’t the free market wonderful. Not.
You have also convinced me even further of the desperate need for an organisation like yours.
More power to you and your sisters Ms Cool. I will be alerting my female friends to the existence of ‘We Are Egg Donors’ and the issues you raise and will link to your site from my blog.
I sincerely hope you get the attention you deserve.
I appreciate it…There are numerous egg brokerage available in Canada..Thanks for sharing…