Embryonic Stem Cells Research, Human Cloning
and the Exploitation of Women

Embryonic Stem Cell Science Requires Human Eggs …and you don’t just pick them up at the store.
Some scientists insist the best opportunity to cure diseases like diabetes will come from embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) and Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT), another name for human cloning. But these techniques require human eggs that can only come from women. CLICK HERE for an explanation from Ethicist Pia de Solenni, Ph.D. who presents the facts on how hundreds of millions of poor, disadvantaged women could be exploited in the process.

Human Egg Harvesting for Embryo Cloning
In the race to clone human embryos to destroy them for their embryonic stem cells, demand has risen for unfertilized eggs. CLICK HERE and connect to “The Bioethics Defense Fund Egg Farming Facts.”

“Egg Donor Business Booms on Campus”
That’s the headline of a cover article that appeared in USA Today revealing the story of cash-strapped college girls were being offered inducements of thousands of dollars to undergo high dose hormone treatment to hyperovulate 15-20 eggs at a time and then surgical extraction of the eggs for embryo cloning experimentation. CLICK HERE to read the story.
 
 
For additional reading, check out Confessions of a Serial Egg Donor by Julia Derek. This disturbing story explicitly depicts the complications an independent college girl faces during her journey of becoming a twelve-time egg donor.

“It’s shocking really when so many risks are associated with it,” Derek says. “A lot of women donate in secret. It wouldn’t surprise me if what happened to me has already happened to various others. It’s so easy getting caught up in all the money you’re offered when you’re young and immature. And considering the stigma still attached [to selling one’s eggs], it’s likely that many women would suffer in silence if something happened to them.” CLICK HERE to view the entire news release.

“We deserve a biotechnology that is not degrading and destructive to women’s health.”
Biotechnological research and development often focuses on women to research their hypotheses. “Hands Off Our Ovaries” strives to educate women of the risks and benefits of medical research. CLICK HERE to connect to their mission.

The Link Between Egg Donation & Ovarian Tumors
This article from Science Magazine by authors from the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and Department of Pediatrics offers a chilling reminder that Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) to create human embryonic stem cells can be risky business. CLICK HERE to read the story.

Egg-sploitation Questions and Answers

Why does embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) involve women?
Women’s eggs are necessary to create the embryo, even a cloned embryo, from which the embryonic stem cells are extracted. READ MORE...

MORE RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET

• Hands Off Our Ovaries
  www.handsoffourovaries.com

• Hands Off Our Ovaries Connects Women around the World Calling for a
  Moratorium on Harvesting Women's Eggs for Research; Protests Growing
  http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/9/prweb444118.htm

• Husband's anguish after wife's IVF death
  Daily Mail, September 9, 2006

• Golden Eggs
  The Boston Globe, June 25, 2006

• Sheep cloner supports human ban
  The Australian, August 07, 2006

• Eggs vs Ethics in Stem Cell Debate
  The Nation, November 29, 2005

• The High Cost of Eggs; Donors at Risk
  US News & World Report, January 13, 2003

• Egg-donor business booms on campuses
  USAToday, March 15, 2006

• Human Egg Harvesting for Embryo Cloning
  Bioethics Defense Fund