By Erin DostalThe Daily Northwestern
In the debate about whether women should be paid for the donations of their eggs to stem cell research, a Feinberg professor says egg donation is an altruistic act and thus should not require payment.
As one of the authors of recent guidelines for the International Society for Stem Cell Research, bioethics and medical humanities Prof. Laurie Zoloth said payment for egg donation was ethically questionable.
“Donation of body parts is a priceless act,” Zoloth said. “It seems to me that it’s morally inconsistent to set a price on them.”
Her views conflicted with colleagues, and the guidelines were ultimately left open when they were published Feb. 2 in the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Some others propose offering women thousands of dollars for egg donation. But Zoloth said she fears large payments could influence low-income women to donate without considering the medical risks and moral implications of their actions.
“I think calling it ‘donation’ would imply that it is a freely given gift,” Zoloth said. “If they’re going to talk about payment, they need to think about calling it an exchange.”
Payment for participation in clinical scientific research is common practice. Payment for donation of body parts, such as blood, bone marrow or organs is not, she said.
Insoo Hyun, a member of the society’s International Human Embryonic Stem Cell Guidelines Task Force, said he strongly favors payment because he believes it is the “fair” thing to do.
The relevant argument, according to Hyun, is whether egg donation for stem cell research is considered clinical or therapeutic. Egg donation would be considered therapeutic if it directly benefited a specific patient, giving the donation an altruistic component, Hyun said. But because stem cell research is still in early laboratory stages, Hyun said he sees donation as participation in a clinical study.
“Organ donation is normally thought to be best done altruistically because there’s a clear therapeutic benefit,” Hyun said. “Egg donation for stem cell research is not for therapeutic benefit. We’re not there yet.”
Egg donation is related “much more closely to the moral gesture of donating body parts” because the eggs are used for the sole purpose of creating embryos, Zoloth said. She said that because egg donation is similar to blood or bone marrow donation, it should not be compensated.
Hyun said more women would probably be willing to donate if compensation was provided, given that women spend about 40 hours completing the full donation process.
To harvest eggs, women undergo weeks of hormone injections to stimulate egg production. Donation involves a minor surgical procedure, as well as general or local anesthetic.
Today in the United States, no women receive payment for egg donation beyond direct expenses, such as parking and medical fees. Women are not paid for their time off work or for the eggs themselves.
“I think the model to look at this entire issue is from the standpoint of how should we treat healthy volunteers for basic research, not how should we treat people who donate organs for transplantation,” Hyun said.
Reach Erin Dostal at [email protected].
