Restricting Payments for Human Eggs Used in Research
Summary
In June 2009 the Empire State Stem Cell Board voted to allow state payments for the ‘donation’ of human eggs to be used specifically for stem cell research. Payments are to be allowed not only for actual expenses involved, but also for time, burden and discomfort, up to $10,000 per retrieval. Statutory change is necessary to undo the action of the Stem Cell Board.
Conference Position
The Conference believes that a policy of state taxpayer-funded payments for human eggs to be used in embryonic stem cell research is unnecessary, dangerous and unethical, and that the practice will exploit women, particularly vulnerable low-income women. The Conference supports legislation to restrict the practice as much as possible.
Rationale
This state policy offends the dignity of women by treating their genetically unique life-giving eggs as a mere commodity to be mechanically extracted and sold to researchers. Human life is sacred, made in the image and likeness of God; respect for human life requires respect for the human body and physical health. It is immoral to treat the human body as mere merchandise to be trafficked for money.
The Empire State Stem Cell Board, without prior legislative authority or public input, approved contract language to enable researchers to compensate women up to $10,000 for their eggs. In the current economic climate, such payments will induce low-income and college-age women who are struggling to put food on their table and pay their bills. Indeed, a cloning study published in October 2011 in the journal Nature utilized eggs retrieved from New York women who were paid $8,000 each.
These women face serious health risks, and others which are still unclear, making informed consent impossible. Vulnerable women should not be coerced into risking their health and their lives for unethical science with speculative benefits.
Despite the very real benefits of non-embryonic and induced pluripotent cell research, some in the scientific community continue to set their sights on human cloning. They need fresh human eggs in order to clone human embryos, embryos which will be subsequently destroyed for their stem cells. Researchers are finding it difficult to obtain human eggs without the lure of money.
No other state in the union allows eggs-for-research payments. The National Institutes of Health prohibits payment for women’s eggs and the National Academy of Sciences opposes payment to egg donors for research. The new federal guidelines governing stem cell research (effective July 7, 2009) caution about the health risks and ethical implications of egg donation.
Current Public Health Law (Section 4307) in New York State prohibits the sale and purchase of human organs, but does not include eggs in the definition of “human organ.” It is this loophole in current law which allows reimbursement to women for their “time, burden and discomfort” in donating eggs for research. Such amorphous terms mask a blatantly commercial transaction that would not be permissible with any other human body tissue.
Payments to women for the extraction of their eggs crosses an ethical line that New Yorkers should not be forced to finance. The Legislature must step in now to close the loophole in current law and prohibit payments for eggs.
You can download this document, Restricting Payments for Human Eggs Used in Research, in PDF form.
