|  Supermodels
sell eggs on-line
New treatment for infertility?
Selling human eggs on-line is the latest fashion.
Infertile couples are buying human eggs on-line. Supermodels
could have whole new career selling their eggs. After all,
sperm banks have been around for years - so why not donate eggs
which might give a child a genetic advantage? Indeed, a former
Playboy pin up supermodel e-mailed me the other day, offering to
give her DNA so she could actually be cloned, for parents who would
like to adopt her little twin sisters. I am against
human cloning.
Some men have fathered thousands of babies through
sperm donation. Women however face risks each time eggs are
collected as anyone going through an IVF
program knows. Ovarian hyperstimulation for example, which
can cause death in extreme cases, is caused by drugs used to make
ovaries produce many eggs as a treatment for infertility.
There is another problem: eggs only provide half the
genes - and no genetic guarantees. Human
cloning provides the ultimate pedigree child: a designer
baby for someone infertile, with exactly the same genes, identical
twin, of someone already alive. A supermodel only needs to
donate cells - skin, white blood cells, or from any other tissue.
The cell nucleus is removed and added to a human egg that has had
a nucleus removed. The two fuse and a clone is made.
this technique has already succeeded
using a human cell and a cow's egg.
There is an emotional and ethical / moral issue with
all these techniques: the result is a child whose welfare
should be highest in our minds. Every step away from the "natural"
where a child is brought up in a loving home by his or her biological
parents, is likely to affect the child's emotional future.
And what happens to ordinary people in a world where children are
no longer loved and valued for who they are, but only so long as
they look good enough or are bright enough or athletic enough?
What kind of message does it give to millions of teenagers who already
have trouble living up to impossible expectations about the shape
of their bodies, their eyes, noses or anything else.
Expect to see not only supermodels selling eggs on-line
for infertile couples, but just about every other human organ available
in bio-auctions within the next three years. It will happen
faster than you think. But is that the kind of world you really
want to live in?
All this effort in the pursuit of happiness, an ultimate
dream. But the fact is that the wealthier and healthier we
are, the more miserable developed nations seem to be. Suicide
rates soar, divorce rates,
child abuse and mental
breakdowns at peak levels. Are we really building a
heavenly world with these new gene technologies?
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Dr Patrick
Dixon is author of Futurewise
and is heavily involved in media
debates on genetics. These pages receive 600,000 hits
every 8 weeks. Should
scientists be told when to stop? Web TV
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