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OPINION: Company talks women who can't afford IVF into trading away their eggs
Trading your baby in exchange for a product or a service is illegal, but trading your eggs in exchange for fertility services is now a business model — one that deliberately creates babies who are intentionally separated from their biological mothers and denied access to them.
A new fertility business will let women store their eggs for free if they agree to give half of their eggs away.
The business believes that this is more ethical than paying women for their eggs.
Women who sign up to give away half of their eggs in exchange for free storage cannot use any of their eggs until a stranger (or strangers) claims the half that were given away.
When Lauren Makler launched her new company, Cofertility, she had been through two major surgeries and treatments for a rare abdominal condition that causes masses to grow throughout her abdomen, diminishing her chances of having a biological child. She explored the possibility of using another woman's eggs, but while researching, she felt the system was "antiquated" and "icky."
She wrote for an essay in Motherly:
It was hard to reconcile that the future of my family could be reduced to clunky systems that placed an overemphasis on superficial and classist attributes, relied on cash compensation and felt hollow and opaque.
Unlike many people who go through the fertility industry and use donor eggs, donor sperm, or surrogacy, she worried about what her potential future child might think of the financial compensation their biological mother received in exchange for them.
Makler cited a Harvard study that found that 62.2% of adults who are donor-conceived think that the exchange of money for eggs and sperm is wrong, and 40.6% are "disturbed" by the fact that money was exchanged in relation to their conception.
In addition, 85% reported feeling a shift in their “sense of self” after learning they were donor-conceived, and about half sought psychological help to cope. About 74% said that they often or very often think about being donor-conceived.
Makler was also concerned with "the real lack of ethnic diversity among donors" and how she thought the "entire experience felt like a disservice—to myself, to all those going through infertility and to communities like the LGBTQ+ community who rely on donors as an essential part of starting a family."
Makler decided to 'reimagine egg donation as human-centered, open and empowering...' She explained:
By bringing together egg donation and egg freezing—two things that go hand in hand—we’re creating a fertility care and third-party reproduction ecosystem that drives meaningful impact on both sides.
Makler created a "Freeze by Co platform," in which women can freeze and store their eggs for free when they agree to donate half of their eggs to strangers who want them.
"Intended parents" are matched with one of these women before the women are allowed to start their egg freezing process. No match means no babies for anyone.
If no one wants your eggs, you don't get them either.
"So many of my friends regret not freezing their eggs in their twenties, but the cost prevented them from doing so. We’re honored to change this narrative for women, while simultaneously improving the family building experience. It’s a win-win. But in order to start your freezing process, you first have to match with a family. The sooner you complete your application (and the more robust it is!), the sooner you’ll match and the sooner your own journey can begin," Makler wrote (emphasis added).
The pressure and fear of running out the biological clock because of the expense of egg freezing is a tactic to get women into the program.
In a nutshell: financially vulnerable women who are worried about their future fertility and can't afford the astronomical fees of egg freezing have to agree to hand over their own eggs — potentially used to create future biological children — to strangers before they are allowed to store the eggs they get to keep or create the children they would get to keep.
These aren't women who started out thinking they wanted to be egg donors. These are women who want to have biological children and are being coerced into a manipulative, unethical quid pro quo.
Makler somehow thinks this is more ethical and "less transactional" than paying willing egg donors.
This isn't "human centered." It's centered on the desires of adults with money to judge, pick, and choose from the eggs of vulnerable women who are waiting to access the service promised to them at the expense of some of their future biological children.
And despite what Makler said about her concerns for the children, the children still aren't being considered at all. One day they may still learn that their biological mothers gave them away, in desperation, to strangers.
Makler's sister ultimately froze her own eggs for Makler to use one day, presumably so she could have a child who was genetically her husband's and her sister's. But Makler never used those eggs.
She became pregnant naturally.
Meanwhile, the CoFertility system is really not all that different from the tragedy of underprivileged women who feel forced to sell their babies so they can afford to care for the other children they have at home.
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Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
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·OPINION: Company talks women who can't afford IVF into trading away their eggs
Trading your baby in exchange for a product or a service is illegal, but trading your eggs in exchange for fertility services is now a business model — one that deliberately creates babies who are intentionally separated from their biological mothers and denied access to them.
A new fertility business will let women store their eggs for free if they agree to give half of their eggs away.
The business believes that this is more ethical than paying women for their eggs.
Women who sign up to give away half of their eggs in exchange for free storage cannot use any of their eggs until a stranger (or strangers) claims the half that were given away.
When Lauren Makler launched her new company, Cofertility, she had been through two major surgeries and treatments for a rare abdominal condition that causes masses to grow throughout her abdomen, diminishing her chances of having a biological child. She explored the possibility of using another woman's eggs, but while researching, she felt the system was "antiquated" and "icky."
She wrote for an essay in Motherly:
It was hard to reconcile that the future of my family could be reduced to clunky systems that placed an overemphasis on superficial and classist attributes, relied on cash compensation and felt hollow and opaque.
Unlike many people who go through the fertility industry and use donor eggs, donor sperm, or surrogacy, she worried about what her potential future child might think of the financial compensation their biological mother received in exchange for them.
Makler cited a Harvard study that found that 62.2% of adults who are donor-conceived think that the exchange of money for eggs and sperm is wrong, and 40.6% are "disturbed" by the fact that money was exchanged in relation to their conception.
In addition, 85% reported feeling a shift in their “sense of self” after learning they were donor-conceived, and about half sought psychological help to cope. About 74% said that they often or very often think about being donor-conceived.
Makler was also concerned with "the real lack of ethnic diversity among donors" and how she thought the "entire experience felt like a disservice—to myself, to all those going through infertility and to communities like the LGBTQ+ community who rely on donors as an essential part of starting a family."
Makler decided to 'reimagine egg donation as human-centered, open and empowering...' She explained:
By bringing together egg donation and egg freezing—two things that go hand in hand—we’re creating a fertility care and third-party reproduction ecosystem that drives meaningful impact on both sides.
Makler created a "Freeze by Co platform," in which women can freeze and store their eggs for free when they agree to donate half of their eggs to strangers who want them.
"Intended parents" are matched with one of these women before the women are allowed to start their egg freezing process. No match means no babies for anyone.
If no one wants your eggs, you don't get them either.
"So many of my friends regret not freezing their eggs in their twenties, but the cost prevented them from doing so. We’re honored to change this narrative for women, while simultaneously improving the family building experience. It’s a win-win. But in order to start your freezing process, you first have to match with a family. The sooner you complete your application (and the more robust it is!), the sooner you’ll match and the sooner your own journey can begin," Makler wrote (emphasis added).
The pressure and fear of running out the biological clock because of the expense of egg freezing is a tactic to get women into the program.
In a nutshell: financially vulnerable women who are worried about their future fertility and can't afford the astronomical fees of egg freezing have to agree to hand over their own eggs — potentially used to create future biological children — to strangers before they are allowed to store the eggs they get to keep or create the children they would get to keep.
These aren't women who started out thinking they wanted to be egg donors. These are women who want to have biological children and are being coerced into a manipulative, unethical quid pro quo.
Makler somehow thinks this is more ethical and "less transactional" than paying willing egg donors.
This isn't "human centered." It's centered on the desires of adults with money to judge, pick, and choose from the eggs of vulnerable women who are waiting to access the service promised to them at the expense of some of their future biological children.
And despite what Makler said about her concerns for the children, the children still aren't being considered at all. One day they may still learn that their biological mothers gave them away, in desperation, to strangers.
Makler's sister ultimately froze her own eggs for Makler to use one day, presumably so she could have a child who was genetically her husband's and her sister's. But Makler never used those eggs.
She became pregnant naturally.
Meanwhile, the CoFertility system is really not all that different from the tragedy of underprivileged women who feel forced to sell their babies so they can afford to care for the other children they have at home.
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Cassy Cooke
·Fact Checks
Cassy Cooke
·Opinion
Sheena Rodriguez
·Pop Culture
Nancy Flanders
·Opinion
Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN
·Analysis
Angeline Tan
·Abortion Pill
Nancy Flanders
·Pop Culture
Nancy Flanders
·Issues
Nancy Flanders
·Human Interest
Nancy Flanders
·Analysis
Nancy Flanders
·