Those opposed to surrogacy, what are your views on egg donation?

[wholeeverything]

I'm a gender critical woman with a high degree of skepticism about commercial surrogacy. I'm also facing the possibility of never having my own child.

Thinking hard about egg donation, I am conflicted about my own views about the ethics of it, from the point of view of the egg donor. What are your views? I am particularly interested in the views of those opposed to surrogacy. Do you see it as the same issue?

I feel like I cannot think objectively because of my own fertility issues. I am personally fine with the ethics of the child's rights, in that I would view it as similar to adoption with a child having the right to know their biological origins, and that then being something for me to decide if I am OK with at a personal level. Where there is full transparency, I don't see it as violating the child's rights.

But what about the young women selling eggs? Is it invasive, dangerous? Should it be viewed like surrogacy or selling an organ? Is it only considered by women in financial hardship, i.e. effectively coerced?

@ElizabethReedyou’re probably right - that was my speculation. The rest of it is accurate.

If the egg ‘donor’ did it to fund her own fertility treatment that’s an ethical issue.

Removing anonymity of biological parents still leaves ethical issues, and risks for the DC.

I know someone who finally got pregnant at 45 with donor eggs and sperm (solo mum) after years of failed fertility treatment (I think initially with her own eggs and then several rounds of donor eggs too). She was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer shortly after the birth of the baby. It seems likely that all the fertility treatments had an impact. She has no family other than elderly parents who are now going to have to take on a baby that they are not genetically related to in the near future. It is literally the worst possible nightmare come true.

I agree that donor eggs are sold as an option like it’s all straightforward, but there is a range of huge risks involved. People do not have the right to a baby just because they want one.

The only person I’ve ever know to be an egg donor was an absolutely rancid person with precisely zero redeeming features. And a very poor genetic history. The thought of her genes being passed on through some unsuspecting family is not a happy one.

Hopefully to a lesser extent but I can completely relate to that, my children in their own little ways have all been very hard work at times but what’s kept me going is the fact that they’re mine and I can relate to all of their idiosyncrasies and flaws, because they’re mostly mine too
I guess it’s the same with adoption, but if you’ve actually grown the baby, I think you’re expectation might be that it’s a bit more like you

For me, the entire fertility industry has gone into places that are highly unethical and so it is so hard to draw a line. The child's needs are not centered in any of it, and that includes cases like the one that has just been mentioned. I am guessing that the parents don't have the donors' details and so the children won't have the chance of a relationship with their genetic relatives until they are 18.

The move in adoption is towards increasing amounts of contact with birth family because this is considered best for the child. With assisted conception, this seems to have been forgotten. This is because it is driven by medical advances, lawyers, money - adoption on the other hand is more in the hands of social services and no money.