Wednesday, July 16, 2008

"Trading on the Female Body: Exploitation of Women for Eggs"

Christine set up this TechTalk at Google for Jennifer Lahl, Founder and National Director of the Center for Bioethics & Culture and Founding Director with Hands Off Our Ovaries, an international campaign raising awareness of the dangers of egg harvesting.

ABSTRACT
One quick Google search on "egg donation" will demonstrate how prevalent the ads are to "make dreams come true" or "help create a miracle".

Women on Ivy League campuses across America and poor women from around the world are being heavily recruited to "donate" their eggs to fertility clinics and now for cloning research.

Sadly, egg donation has less to do with altruism and more to do with the exploitation of women--particularly young women and often poor women who are usually facing large debts or just trying to make ends meet. Egg donation puts women's health and safety at risk. Newer trends in fertility medicine are moving away from current practices which are harmful to infertile women but neglect the nameless, faceless egg donor women.

People of all political and religious stripes have organized all around the world to call attention to the risks of egg donation practices.

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