...may be the new motto for New York ESC researchers.

The Christian News Wire released a story last week about New York possibly allowing payment to be made to women who are willing to donate eggs for scientific research. I did not make this post earlier because I was unable to verify this story with any other news agency. I still have had no success on finding this story reported by any major news agency and so I want to make it clear that I am not reporting this as fact. But there is something to be gained from the possibility of this story, particularly since many states have not allowed agencies to pay women to harvest their eggs.

What I cannot understand is what reason a person that supports ESCR would give for opposing compensation to women who donate eggs? I don’t think I am misrepresenting the majority since compensation for eggs has not been allowed at this point in time. It has been discussed in the past, but always opposed.

I think the answer to this question is important. Because if the reason to oppose this is because it is unethical, what makes it unethical? It certainly cannot be the fact that eggs are being removed from the woman’s ovaries because fertility clinics harvest eggs in order to carry out in vitro fertilization do they not? Is it simply that they are paying them for their eggs? But what truly makes this a lot different from being compensated for donating blood?

What makes the most sense to me (from a supportive perspective of ESCR) is that this falls in-line with being compensated for organs. As far as I know, it is illegal to be compensated following the harvest of an organ. In other words, you cannot be paid a set amount for your organ like we pay a set amount for milk at the grocery store. This is because people would begin to “donate” organs that would negatively affect their health simply to receive the generous compensation. This seems to be the major opposition to paying women for the eggs; that there is certain health risks to a woman who undergoes the procedure who may choose not to undergo if compensation was not involved.