I have no idea about the health risks, but I think people are underestimating the privacy risks.
Anyone who donates eggs or sperm is incurring the risk that some years down the line, they or their family members will be contacted by the child. I don’t care what privacy protections you were promised when you made the donation, or even what laws exist in your jurisdiction to provide privacy — you don’t know what the law is going to be 20 years from now, and the general direction has been towards “I have a right to know my genetic heritage!”
More importantly, the law may be irrelevant, because the official clinic records won’t be needed in many instances. With so many people eagerly signing up to put their DNA in the databases of Ancestry.com and the like, it’s not going to be hard for people to find their genetic relatives. Even if you, the donor, are careful not to participate in anything like that, you can’t guarantee that your siblings or other relatives won’t.
Of course some people will view this as a positive thing. What could be better than one day discovering and getting to meet some new relatives, right? In which case, I guess, have at it, though note that any future spouse and children might not share your enthusiasm.
“Freeze your eggs” is being sold to some young girls and women as an option before medical transition, so that if they want biological children later, they can have them. But the chances of a live birth resulting from any one of these eggs is low–I’m seeing 37 – 39%.
Natalie Angier wrote about egg harvesting in her wonderful book, Woman: An Intimate Geography. Among other things, she mentions that the process is excruciatingly painful.
Anesthesia is offered, but surprisingly enough, she said, some women refuse it.
Lady M, some women refuse pain killers during childbirth; I imagine it’s the same motivation. In fact, some women like to harass and scream at women (such as me) who need painkillers during childbirth. Also if you require any sort of stitches after childbirth, as I did. I know this from experience.
It was a bit of Schadenfreude that the woman in my childbirth class who was the loudest screamer about not having anything but a midwife, natural birth for her child ended up the one who had to have Cesarean. Not that I didn’t feel sympathy of course, but when one has been abused by someone, one does feel that little sense of justice served.
I have no idea about the health risks, but I think people are underestimating the privacy risks.
Anyone who donates eggs or sperm is incurring the risk that some years down the line, they or their family members will be contacted by the child. I don’t care what privacy protections you were promised when you made the donation, or even what laws exist in your jurisdiction to provide privacy — you don’t know what the law is going to be 20 years from now, and the general direction has been towards “I have a right to know my genetic heritage!”
More importantly, the law may be irrelevant, because the official clinic records won’t be needed in many instances. With so many people eagerly signing up to put their DNA in the databases of Ancestry.com and the like, it’s not going to be hard for people to find their genetic relatives. Even if you, the donor, are careful not to participate in anything like that, you can’t guarantee that your siblings or other relatives won’t.
Of course some people will view this as a positive thing. What could be better than one day discovering and getting to meet some new relatives, right? In which case, I guess, have at it, though note that any future spouse and children might not share your enthusiasm.
A good documentary on the risks of egg donation is Eggsploitation https://youtu.be/jAMrwAGR3GA (only 45 minutes).
[…] a comment by Screechy Monkey on What would you spend that 9k […]
Couple of randomish thoughts re egg harvesting:
“Freeze your eggs” is being sold to some young girls and women as an option before medical transition, so that if they want biological children later, they can have them. But the chances of a live birth resulting from any one of these eggs is low–I’m seeing 37 – 39%.
Natalie Angier wrote about egg harvesting in her wonderful book, Woman: An Intimate Geography. Among other things, she mentions that the process is excruciatingly painful.
Anesthesia is offered, but surprisingly enough, she said, some women refuse it.
Lady M, some women refuse pain killers during childbirth; I imagine it’s the same motivation. In fact, some women like to harass and scream at women (such as me) who need painkillers during childbirth. Also if you require any sort of stitches after childbirth, as I did. I know this from experience.
It was a bit of Schadenfreude that the woman in my childbirth class who was the loudest screamer about not having anything but a midwife, natural birth for her child ended up the one who had to have Cesarean. Not that I didn’t feel sympathy of course, but when one has been abused by someone, one does feel that little sense of justice served.
iknclast:
You and Queen Victoria.
At least I have heard that she helped make painkillers during childbirth respectable by using them herself.