US fertility clinics are offering designer babies and are rife with shady ‘eugenics’ practices, a new book claims
Mainstream politicians from both sides of the political spectrum have championed the protection of IVF in recent months.
Former President Donald Trump wants to make it free. His 2024 rival Kamala Harris has repeatedly promised to fight for access, while arguing that Republicans support policies that would hinder access to IVF.
But a new book has exposed ethically questionable practices in the egg donation industry. eerily similar to the practice of eugenics.
While it’s normal for expectant parents to want their child to look somewhat like them, with a similar skin tone and body shape, says Dr. Diane Tober, author of the forthcoming book EggonomieSome parents said they are going one step further.
The unregulated landscape of the industry has created a great need for clinics to promote “elite” donors who are more likely to attract the attention of potential parents.
Unlike the rest of Europe, there are no uniform standards for appropriate methods for properly recruiting egg donors and the sector is largely unregulated.
The egg donation industry prefers white female donors with a high level of education and certain physical characteristics, such as blue eyes, which Dr. Diane Tober warned had “eugenic connotations.”
Dr. Tober wrote that donation banks promote donations from women who attended Ivy League or elite universities, are white or of Asian descent, and have certain physical characteristics that are attractive to parents. Example courtesy of Cofertility.com
The egg donation industry is often described as a “wild west,” where minimal regulation leaves room for pushing ethical boundaries, with prospective parents considering everything from where he or she went to college to the color of his or her eyes when choosing a donor.
The ethical guidelines for egg donation established by the authoritative American Society for Reproductive Medicine are only guidelines and are not legally binding.
Meanwhile, there are no federal regulations on how much egg donors can be paid, nor are there strict rules governing fertility clinics’ marketing practices.
Dr Tober said: ‘Donor profiles are marketing tools to attract prospective parents. Women who possess the desired social and physical characteristics are more likely to sell their child to a large number of prospective parents than others.’
Parents often search through databases of women looking for the ‘perfect donor’.
She said physical characteristics such as hair and eye color, skin tone and ancestry determine the question, not just the search for someone who resembles the parents.
Dr Tober added: ‘The selection and marketing of donors in the US therefore has some disturbing eugenic implications.’
QQuestions about eugenics have long plagued the donation market, which is now worth more than $3 billion.
One of her findings was that white women in the US are paid up to eight times more for their eggs than black women.
As more women delay parenthood to focus on financial stability and achieving their career goals, it is becoming more common to use egg donation to conceive.
Older women tend to have fewer eggs or eggs of lower quality, making pregnancy difficult or impossible.
Women with certain genetic conditions who do not wish to pass them on to their children may also choose to donate eggs to avoid passing on the condition themselves.
A report from JAMA found that the number of donor eggs used for in vitro fertilization (IVF) increased by about 70 percent between 2000 and 2010, from 10,801 to 18,306.
And in 2019, fertility clinics performed nearly 20,000 IVF procedures using donor eggswhich represents an increase of 14 percent compared to the previous five years.
The FDA sets standards for medical screening and testing of egg donors to prevent disease transmission. However, there are no comprehensive federal laws specifically governing all aspects of egg donation, leaving states to implement their own regulations.
To garner donations—a misnomer since some donations can net women more than $100,000—egg donation banks often advertise on elite college campuses, even in school newspapers.
Jessica Cohen, a Yale University student, saw an ad in the Yale Daily News from a couple looking for “a young woman, over 5 feet 6 inches tall, of Jewish descent, athletic, with a combined SAT score of at least 1500, and attractive.”
Mrs. Cohen, who shared her experiences with The Atlantic Ocean responded to the ad in 2002 and contacted Michelle and David, who asked about her educational history and religious background, and for photographs.
As part of this effort, Ms. Cohen was given access to a database of approximately 300 potential donors.
Parents can search for all kinds of desired characteristics and limit the selection as much as possible, for example based on ethnic origin, religion of birth, country of residence, hair color, eye color, height and weight.
Ultimately, Michelle and David turned her down as a donor. David emailed, “I showed the photos to [my wife] this morning. Personally, I think you look great. She said ho-hum.’
In another report published in the Guardian Ellie Houghtaling, speaking about potential donors, learned that egg donation banks are very selective about accepting such donations, rejecting those who do not meet certain criteria.
Ms Houghtaling said the clinic assessed more than just her predisposition to genetic conditions: ‘they also took into account other features: my blond hair, my blue eyes and my fair skin.
‘During screening interviews, team members subtly complimented and affirmed descriptions of my body, personality, and Ivy League education. All in all, I had my doubts that this was sanitized eugenics.’
