HandsOffOurOvaries Newsletter, April 2007
CONTENTS:
· MEDIA -
· Video: Trading on the Female Body
· Egg harvesting flyer download
· NEWS -
· New Guidelines to protect egg donors
Notice
Regarding Senate Bill 5: HandsOffOurOvaries
seeks a moratorium on egg harvesting for research cloning and takes
no official position at this time on the current stem cell research
bill before Congress, SB 5. Comments that may suggest otherwise
represent the views of the individuals making them and do not
constitute official HandsOff policy.
MEDIA:
Video: Trading on the
Female Body
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HandsOff in California: On April 6, HandsOffOur- Ovaries Chair, Diane Beeson spoke at a Stem Cell Ethics Conference presented by the Center for Ethics in Science and Technology at the Salk Institute in San Diego, CA. Other speakers included prominent stem cell researchers, bioethicists and representatives of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Professor Beeson’s laid out the case for a moratorium on egg harvesting for cloning research. She also addressed the limitations of the Institute of Medicine report, “Assessing the Medical Risks of Human Oocyte Donation for Stem Cell Research.” This report is being used to justify asking healthy young women to donate eggs for cloning research; but as Professor Beeson argued, the document does not provide evidence that the practice is safe. In fact, it does the opposite. Professor Beeson’s statements about both the lack of appropriate follow-up of egg donors and the dangers of egg harvesting went unchallenged. Several participants did, however, object to her use of the term “cloning research.” It seems that proponents of cloning technology are as concerned about avoiding public understanding of the connection between egg harvesting and embryonic cloning as they are with denying risks to women’s health posed by egg harvesting. The text of her talk will be posted on the HandsOff website soon.
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NEWS:
The HandsOff
Newsletter features articles concerning policies, controversies, and
ethics relevant to egg harvesting for cloning research; this may
include articles reporting medical information learned from the IVF
industry. Similarly, articles concerning global egg trafficking in
the IVF industry are relevant and may be included since the increased
demand for eggs for research will likely build on these already
ongoing global arrangements. Additionally, as a service, the
Newsletter may include articles concerning biotech patenting,
animal-human hybrid creation (chimerism), stem cell research and
reproductive cloning in so far as they may be relevant to
considerations of research cloning.
New
Guidelines to protect egg donors: Carol Nader,
April 12, 2007, WOMEN should not be paid to donate their eggs for
medical research, and should be fully informed of the risks of the
invasive procedure, according to national draft guidelines. Read
entire article
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The student and the
ovum: The lack of autonomy and informed consent in trading genes for
tuition, Reproductive
Biology and Endocrinology, 2004, July 12, Thomas
J Papadimos and Alexa T Papadimos
ABSTRACT:
Rising tuition costs have forced university students to become
creative in finding ways to fund their education. Some female
university students have decided that ova donation may be an
acceptable alternative in which to pay for their tuition. This
alternative presents itself because of the insufficient number of ova
available for assisted reproduction and emerging stem cell
technologies. Young female university students are encouraged by
Internet sources and respectable electronic and print media to donate
their ova in the cause of assisted reproduction for monetary
compensation. While university students generally exhibit autonomy,
the constraining influence of their financial predicament compromises
the elements of informed consent (voluntariness, competence,
capacity, understanding, and disclosure) as to their making an
autonomous decision in regard to egg donation. Thus, any moral
possibility of giving informed consent is negated. Informed consent
can only occur through autonomy. A female university student in need
of financial resources to pay for her education cannot make an
autonomous choice to trade her genes for tuition. Donated ova are not
only needed for assisted reproduction, but for stem cell
technologies. While the long-term health of women who donate their
ova is of concern (a potential risk of cancer after long term use of
ovulation induction), of equal concern is the possibility of a growth
in the trade of ova targeting third world and Eastern European women
where the precedence for autonomy and informed consent is not well
established.
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ARTICLES:
Dolly's
Legacy: Dolly’s Legacy: ten year’s
on, mammalian cloning is moving forward with central societal issues
remaining unresolved. Yet human reproductive cloning seems
inevitable. NATURE, vol. 445, Issue 7130, 22 February 2007. Download
Nature article - PDF
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Stem cells from
testes: On Friday 24 March, researchers at the
Georg August University of Göttingen in Germany announced they
had found a source of reprogrammable cells in the testes of adult
mice. By Sunday morning, more than ten companies had e-mailed senior
team member Gerd Hasenfuss about collaborating on future work, Nature
Vol 440,30 March 2006, Download Nature article - PDF
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