The High Price of In Vitro Fertilization :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The High Price of In Vitro Fertilization MAKE A DREAM COME TRUE. GIVE THE GIFT OF LIFE! BE AN EGG DONOR. $6,500 STIPEND AND EXPENSES PAID. When twenty-year-old Maria Slone first saw the ad in her college newspaper, she remembers thinking, â€Å"Damn, that’s a lot of money!† She called up immediately, envisioning an egg-plucking process that would be as quick and effortless as sperm donation. Disappointingly, the receptionist at Woman to Woman Fertility Clinic didn’t give her the time of day, mostly because that was last spring and Maria wasn’t twenty-one yet, but also because she seemed a tad too money-hungry for the well-to-do clinic. Looking back, Maria smiles a little sheepishly. Now, one year later, and halfway through the process of donating her eggs to an infertile couple, she knows what she’s in for, both emotionally and physically. Already, she’s wrestled with the idea of selling her genetic material to strangers—she’s taking the unusual step of meeting with the couple who chose her genes from a stack of manila folders. And now she’s overcoming a lifelong abhorrence of needles by playing doctor—she’s injecting a syringe full of milk into a grapefruit, mentally bracing herself for the ovary-stimulating hormones she’ll inject into her own thighs and buttocks for ten days next month. But Maria’s taking both the emotional and physical sacrifices in stride because at the end of August—after ten or more of her eggs are retrieved from her ovaries—the Woman to Woman Fertility Clinic will cut her a $4,000 check. The payment promises a soothing aloe to Maria’s staggering list of financial woes: crushing legal fees, spiraling credit card debt, student loan payments, and a hankering for a liposuction procedure that could cost up to $4,000. Already, she spends long, hot Saturdays babysitting for a hyper five-year-old boy, and on weekdays leads troops of rowdy teenagers on tours through the State Capitol. Both jobs barely subsidize rent, groceries, and the weekend recreational pleasures that 21-year-old college students indulge in. That’s why, after being rebuffed once, Maria called again four months ago. The information packet came in the mail only three days after Maria dialed the 1-800 number. From the vital statistics she provided over the phone—blond hair, blue eyes—she was an instant hit. The receptionist at the fertility clinic made her voice buttery sweet, over-eager to please.