I used to say it was amazing what you could buy or sell online- sperm, eggs, body parts, whole entire families and even grilled cheese sandwiches with the face of the Virgin Mary.

Now I marvel at what you can read online, especially about yourself. For example, last week I found myself listed on Wikipedia with many others, under the definition of bioconservatism. Sounds so biohazardous! Always On, a site where CBC newsletters are reprinted with our permission, has a comment from a man, calling me a fundy-mentalist in response to my concerns about women’s health and safety in relation to egg donation. I’m not altogether sure what fundamentalism has to do with wanting safe health practices for women. The London Times, just yesterday, lumped my female colleagues and I into the “Crazy Collaboration” camp because pro-choice and pro-life women have found common cause and have built bridges to work together. I call that strategic and non partisan, not crazy.

So if it is “crazy” and “mental” to be concerned about the health of women, then I guess I’m a lunatic! In honor of March 8th being International Women’s day, let’s keep our focus on the honorable task before us- working together for human dignity, the rights of all human beings (even those who would call us names)- and let’s work with as many people as we can find common cause with, because one person’s life lost is too high a price to pay.

On this day, we remember those women who have died because of egg donation and the effects of harmful infertility drugs:

Temilola Akinbolagbe ﾖ England

Jacqueline Rushton ﾖ Ireland

Zenaide Maria Bernardo ﾖ Italy*

Aliza Eisenberg ﾖ Israel*

Andrea Dominguez ﾖ Spain*

Gildna Radner ﾖ USA *

Liz Tabrizi ﾖ USA*

* As detailed in Gena Corea’s “The Mother Machine: Reproductive Technologies from Artificial Insemination to Artificial Wombs”

Jennifer Lahl is National Director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network.

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