Lisa wants you to know, “it’s not just a check” but also, “people’s whose lives are changing.” The $40 million dollar a year, mostly unregulated egg donation industry in the U.S., continues to heavily recruit from young college girls. Debora Spar, a Harvard Business School professor who has just written a new book, The Baby Business: How money, science and politics drive the commerce of conception says, “It isn’t just a product like bottled water or potato chips,” she says. “People are selling genetic material and hope.” Young girls like Lisa haven’t thought of the emotional and physical consequences of helping infertile couples have the baby of their dreams. We as a society haven’t thought about these consequences. A pediatrician in Michigan, who made extra money in med school estimates that he gave some 200 plus sperm donations over the course of about 5 years. He has now been contacted by several of his ‘donor children’ who have wanted to know who their biological dad is. He has reflected on his actions during medical school, and now as a pediatrician he is concerned as he has learned two of his children are being raised in single parent homes. Funny no one seems to be focused on the well being of the children.

Author Profile

Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.