Opinion    


Selling their eggs to create super-babies

By Jen Jones
Hope Secondary School
Hope, British Columbia


On October 25, 1999, the great egg auction began. There is a web page on the Internet where models are selling their ovarian eggs. This is completely legal in the United States. The model's eggs start at $15,000 and are being sold for up to $150,000 (US).

Ron Harris named the web site after the TV show, Charlie's Angels, and called his web page "Rons Angels".

 

A couple may decide they want to have a child so they can have something to share and it may symbolize their love for each other. When you look at a child, you can most likely see some characteristics of the mother and also some characteristics of the father. Each time the mother or father looks into their child's eyes, they can see the two different genes of the parents that make up their child.

Now, keeping all that in mind, what if you were to look at your very own child, the one you were in labour with for so many hours, and the nine months of carrying, mood swings, and discomfort, and so on, and the child doesn't even look remotely like you? If you can honestly say that you don't mind, then you obviously want a child for the wrong reasons.

In my opinion, a person that would want to give birth to a child that actually isn't theirs has got some serious issues. What is the world coming to? Now we can decide what we want our child to look like and maybe even what they act like. There have been cases where parents have advertised for the eggs of athletic and intellectual students. This almost sounds like genetic engineering or "create-a-child". Does anyone else realize this is just like the toy "Mr. Potato Head"?

It has been said that a mother and a daughter share a certain bond and that a son and a father share a certain bond. It could even be the other way around. There are some personalities that just naturally go together. If one of these mothers gave birth using the model's egg, and was the mother of the baby for the rest of their life, the chances that these two would "connect" mentally are very low. Who knows? They may not even like each other a little bit.

My overall concern about the selling of human eggs is that people are messing with fate. If you were one of these children that were bought, how would you feel? Would it create a very negative opinion of your parents, knowing the decision that they have made? Would you ever wonder if you did turn out the way they wanted you to?

I can totally see one of these mothers (one who has purchased and used an egg) deciding somewhere down the road that they don't want the baby anymore, or that it is not pretty enough. If they are so choosy that they have to look through pictures of models, then decide what they want their child to look like, nine months down the road there is a good chance they could change their minds again. Anyone who thinks looks matter that much (so much that a baby, who is adorable anyway, has to look a certain way) obviously doesn't realize that it is what is inside that primarily matters. By someone making this choice to buy an egg very clearly shows their morals, and in my mind, is not fit to be a mother.

This article originally appeared in The Attempt, the school newspaper at Hope
Secondary School in Hope, British Columbia. Check out the online version of The Attempt.


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