fertilize all ye eggs

I read an article this morning in the February edition of Elle (one of my favorites) on egg donation. It was interesting that I should read an article about this, as I had a lengthy conversation regarding this issue back in December. I had a friend who donated and she went on and on about how she was glad she did it and the recipients were so happy blah blah blah. Then she told me what she got paid, and me being the financially challenged individual that I am, jumped at the opportunity. I had planned the next day to get online and start researching. I even called Ralph and we began to talk about what I could buy with my earnings. With the holidays and my busy social schedule I had completely forgotten about this until today.

The article addressed a lot points that I never thought could play into choosing a donor. I should mention the article was written by a woman seeking a donor so she and her husband could have a second child--a sibling for their naturally produced offspring. I was shocked to find that some donors request as much as 50k and have waiting lists. People are pretty much trying to create the perfect child. If you go these donor sites and sign up you get asked wild questions like your SAT score. I hate the SAT. Who cares about the SAT??? Whatever the case it's amazing the lengths these people go to in order to have a child that carries the father's DNA. The women mentioned that as she watched the donor's egg meet with her hubby's swimmers she felt like an affair was going on. Weird, huh? In the end this woman spent all of inheritance her mother (who died a year prior) had left her only to end up with nothing. While they gal the couple selected was prime ---in the eyes of desperate parents--she went to UCLA law, good test scores, ambitious, well-written, well-spoken, athletic, few family health problems blah blah blah--she had "poor eggs." No baby.

Yeah, so after reading this I realized what a hypocrite I would be if I did donate my eggs. Yes I could potentially be helping a family who really really really really wants a baby, but do I want my DNA floating in god-knows-where? Yes, I could take the earnings pay off credit card debt, have a nice savings, and even walk away with a new bag, but is it worth it to know 18 yrs. later someone could knock at my door? Though the biggest turn off for me comes when I think of all of the children who need to be adopted. Adoption can be a lengthy process, but isn’t assisted fertility? I don't know I just would feel right giving up these good or potentially poor eggs when there are a number of omelets to choose from.

UPDATE: thanks to an anonomyus reader I can provide you a link to the article

http://www.danishapiro.com/egg-donor.html