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Surrogacy and donor eggs - would you..?

31 replies

mollipops · 17/06/2002 07:00

These topics are big in the news here at the moment, since a Melbourne woman was recently charged with trying to sell her baby to a US couple over the internet for $10,000. The pregancy was a result of this woman having been a rape victim. She changed her mind once the baby was born, but she has been in foster care since then (she is now a year old I think).

When the news covered the story they also mentioned a website where this woman advertised the baby, where lots of mums and hopeful-parents-to-be advertise either to be a surrogate or to "buy" a baby. There are other women who advertise to donate/sell eggs. Just wondered what all the mumsnetters think about all this? Would you be prepared to carry a baby for another couple, or a relative who is unable to have her own (either for free or for money)? Would you consider either donating or selling your eggs? Personally while I admire the idea of allowing childless couples to be able to have children, I don't think I could carry a baby full-term and then just give it away, nor do I think I would feel comfortable with giving away (or selling) my eggs, even though they are in effect being "wasted" every cycle, since we do not plan to have any more children ourselves... But there are so many other ways to "help" childless couples these days, with GIFT and IVF, plus of course legal adoption...although I believe the waiting lists are very long and all these options are expensive and can take a long time.

Over to you...

OP posts:

Thanks

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Marina · 17/06/2002 09:24

Mollipops, I have an old friend suffering from secondary infertility who, after all the tests, has been told that IVF with a donated egg is the only chance for her to have a second child. So no matter how fantastic GIFT and other forms of fertility treatment are these days, egg donation is the only thing that can help her. She is currently on the waiting list. There are so many issues to consider in egg donation, but my basic instinct would be to offer to help her. There are two good reasons why I can't. I am too old - but despite the fact my eggs aren't "fresh", I am also currently pregnant myself. This after nearly two years of trying and knowing that if all the tests pointed to IVF it would be financially out of our range. I think a lot of the wonderful, selfless women who donate eggs through the clinic egg-sharing programmes in the UK know through experience what inability to conceive really means. Eggs are not legally sold in this country: they are "traded" via clinics for free/low-cost IVF, so that women who are ovulating but have to have IVF can help women out with ovulation problems.
Surrogacy is entirely another matter...not something I could do either.

Thanks