Bioethike » Egg Donation

September 23 is Stem Cell Awareness Day

Robert C. Baker — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:47:59 +0000

By proclamation of Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger (California) and Jim Doyle (Wisconsin), and Mayors Gavin Newsom (San Francisco) and Jerry Sanders (San Diego), September 23 is “Stem Cell Awareness Day.” It is a good day to rejoice that we all began our earthly journey as embryonic stem cells, give thanks for the medical advancement and proven therapies derived from adult stem cells without requiring the destruction of human embryos, and to mourn the loss of living, human embryos sacrificed on the pagan altar of embryonic stem cell research, which has thus yielded no viable cures or therapies.

Heart-wrenching: Sad effects of ovary hyperstimulation

Robert C. Baker — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:14:22 +0000

Although “Woman X,” a thirty-five-year-old scientist, had a pre-existing ovarian condition, her sad story adds further weight to the argument that the hyperstimulation of ovaries is. not. a. good. thing. As readers of Bioethike know, besides a procedure for in vitro fertilization (IVF), ovary hyperstimulation of thousands if not more women will be required in order to have the number of viable eggs needed to do embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) and human cloning. Here’s a snippet:

When I decided to sell my eggs, I never thought I’d get cancer. I don’t remember if the clinic told me that the fertility drugs could increase my risk of cancer. They certainly didn’t tell me that the relationship between cancer and fertility treatments for egg donors had never been researched. Now I know more than I ever wanted to know about breast cancer. I know that breast cancers are hormone sensitive and can be affected by hormone treatments. During my cancer treatment, two doctors mentioned that anecdotally they see more cancer in women who have had fertility treatments. I’ll never know for sure if the egg donation caused my breast cancer, but now I know that it is likely to be a contributing factor. I think often about how much I love my husband, and it breaks my heart that my desperation for a couple thousand bucks has caused him such pain. A bad decision made seven years ago may cost me my life.

You can read her entire story at the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network.

Yet another reason to subscribe to Bioethike

Robert C. Baker — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:00:32 +0000

Kathy Lynn Grossman asks in today’s USA Today Faith and Reason blog,

Would you let your embryos — left over in a clinic freezer from your efforts to have a child — languish on ice forever, be discarded or be used by medical researchers looking for ways to cure dread diseases?

Why, yes of course, Ms. Grossman, important question. I think they’re stuffed right next to that frozen grouper Uncle Fred caught last year in Tarpon Springs and behind the frozen peas, gosh darn it Helen, where are those embryos?

The callousness by which Ms. Grossman asks the question, as if human embryos were only like so much frozen food that I must, must simply and finally something do good with them (enter happy white-coated lab types) rather than let them languish (Freudian slip?–they’re not human, Ms. Grossman, right?) or be discarded like icky ice-crystal-covered-somethings that I see every day in my freezer at home, is simply appalling.

Thankfully, Ms. Grossman’s blog is “conversational.” Read this cathartic answer by commenter mlfranciskus (6 comments down; edited):

No, I would force millions of them to be implanted thru Obama’s mandatory volunteerism program and in 20 years we would have a whole new tax base.

Delightful!

Not eggsactly encouraging

Robert C. Baker — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:40:45 +0000

This March 31 article in Time suggests that doubts linger about the long-term health affects of human egg donation, which require hormone injections among other things, although there have been no studies completed thus far.

HT: Center for Genetics and Society.