Egg Donation for IVF and Stem Cell Research
By Judy Norsigian,
Different Takes #33 (Spring 2005)
| 03. 01. 2005
Time to Weigh the Risks to Women’s Health
Last year, Barbara Seaman's article, "Is This Any Way to Have a
Baby?" in O (Oprah) Magazine (February 2004) caused quite a stir among
infertility experts as well as women dealing with infertility. It
explored women's experiences with fertility drugs and underscored the
paucity of long term safety data as well as the serious, occasionally
irreversible problems experienced by some women using these drugs. In
response, members of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine
(ASRM) and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART)
posted an unusual rebuttal at the ASRM website, and the controversies continue.
Because
there is now significant debate about embryo stem cell research, and
because one type of embryo stem cell research ("somatic cell nuclear
transfer" or SCNT) requires women volunteers to undergo egg extraction
to produce eggs for research purposes, there is renewed attention to
the larger question of risks to women's health from egg extraction
procedures. These procedures are the same whether performed for
reproductive purposes — as is the case in an infertility clinic where
women undergo "in vitro fertilization" (IVF) procedures — or...
Related Articles
By Gilma Avalos, NBC | 07.03.2024
Image by Josh Appel from Unsplash
The dream of becoming parents is turning into a nightmare for hundreds of people caught up in a surrogacy money scandal.
Some of the individuals are facing infertility or medical challenges, seeing surrogacy as...
By Emma McDonald Kennedy
| 07.11.2024
Louise Perry’s recent article in The Spectator cautions against “The quiet return of eugenics,” a threat she locates in preimplantation genetic testing for polygenic disorders. The technology is billed as a way for parents undergoing IVF to select which embryo to implant based on information about each embryo’s genetic risk factors and traits. These reports, she says, give parents “a very full picture of the adult that embryo could become”––from their child’s risk of developing different diseases to their “likely...
By Sonia Suter and Naomi Cahn, PET | 07.01.2024
Image by Dusdn5959 from Wikimedia Commons
Since the US Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade (see BioNews 1147), there have been worries about the future of IVF in the USA. Both abortion and IVF involve decisions...