Internet egg auctioneer plays God
Campus Times
October 29, 1999
Enough is enough. The boundaries enclosing the gift and value of conception
have not only been crossed, but they have been altogether depleted.
Recent reports that Ron Harris, a self-proclaimed "renowned fashion
photographer," decided to spearhead an Internet egg (and sperm) donor
auction shocked the public earlier this week. Harris' web site, http://www.ronsangels.com, features numerous
fashion models who, according to the photographer, are more than willing
to donate their ova to infertile women for a small price -- at least $15,000
or $150,000 ... in $1,000 increments.
Harris has opted to start this online auction in order to allow potential
buyers to "choose the girl that most resembles you. A better-looking
version of you." Moreover, he claims that millions of men worldwide
would "love to have their genes combined with the most beautiful women,"
and that the auction serves as the best opportunity for either party to
ultimately have attractive offspring.
How can one who experiments with a camera's shutter speed and aperture
suddenly be able to put out a smorgasbord of ova to recommend to customers
the kind of person they should pick?
Granted, egg banks are a common part of our society, and more than 6
million infertile woman nationwide are looking for eggs in order to have
children of their own. But only certain factors-age, eye and hair color,
ethnicity and overall health of the egg donor-can be considered legit in
selecting a candidate.
Some couples, for either personal or emotional reasons, prefer that
their children at least bear a close resemblance to them. After all, that
is part of the reason for which a donor's data can be so vital.
However, it seems that our society has come to use egg and sperm banks
as a lottery, playing God by picking and choosing desired donors based on
their physical appearance, all while it has also grown to slowly ignore
the pricelessness of conception in the process.
Several years ago, the idea of a woman raising a family on her own was
not a popular vision among the day's society. To witness or hear of the
life of a single-parent family often filled many with not only a sense of
empathy, but also with a feeling of concern.
Nowadays, it seems that single-parent families are no longer a big deal.
They are part of what society has understood and accepted-no questions asked.
But at the same time, more and more women who, for whatever reason,
seek to be single mothers are taking it upon themselves to simply select
the father of their baby, get pregnant and break off any connections with
the father of their child.
Take Madonna, for example. An entertainment icon who has literally transformed
before the public eye since the early 1980s, Madonna one day disclosed that
she wanted to conceive a child.
She began the hunt for a suitable, temporary mate (and found her physical
trainer, Carlos León), made a financial agreement for León's
commitment, got pregnant, and gave birth to a baby girl she named Lourdes.
Within months after the child's birth, the "couple" settled its
monetary compromise, split up and continued with their individual lives.
As easy as it was for Madonna to play the lottery for a "beautiful"
sperm donor, infertile women nationwide are being given the chance to select
a personally attractive woman from the Internet to supply their ova for
conception.
Even if web sites such as Harris' are successful for its customers,
who is to say that their offspring will actually look like one of these
models? Neither natural nor artificial forms of conception come with a money-back
guarantee.
Moreover, genes are one of the dominating factors in regards to a child's
appearance, and no one but God can determine who a child will resemble.
In any case, life and conception is not about "wishing" that
a child will "turn out" successful, happy or even beautiful.
Those who are privileged enough to be able to conceive and give birth
to a child -- whether through natural or artificial means -- should feel
privileged enough to raise the family with which they are blessed, not the
family they have been able to choose.
Araceli Esparza, a senior journalism major, is editor in chief of
the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at esparzaa@ulv.edu.
