Fertility

The Problem of Glaring Inconsistencies

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The 1999 satirical film Office Space chronicles the downfall of a comedically dysfunctional software company called Initech. The company hires two independent consultants to analyze the company’s inner workings and ultimately help them downsize by terminating the employment of non-essential workers. Throughout the film, we see the “experts” hyper scrutinize all the wrong “problems,” applaud […]

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I Sold My Eggs and Paid With My Health

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Welcome back to Venus Rising! One of the main commodities in the ever-growing infertility industry is human eggs. Young women all over the world are targeted by ads to “donate” their eggs. Who are these women and what are the risks to their health?  In this episode I have the opportunity to talk with Kylee […]

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Fertility Drugs and Cancer (Part 3)

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Recently, on our podcast Venus Rising, I had the opportunity to interview Maggie Eastman and her family about her experience with egg donation and the nightmare that occurred afterwards. Maggie was a young, bright-eyed college student when she was first recruited as an egg donor. What started as a desire to help families while earning […]

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The Facebook Sperm Donors

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In the midst of a global pandemic when people around the world are facing isolation, it’s no surprise to see the masses turning to social media to meet a lot of their needs. A typical social media user can find everything from witty memes to political discussions with just the click of a button on […]

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She’s My Mother; She’s My Father

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If you’ve seen the 1974 movie “Chinatown,” you may recall that great scene, where the detective, Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson), confronts Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) about the identity of the woman he believes is Evelyn’s father’s mistress. It is a famous scene with Jake shouting at Evelyn, “who is she” with Evelyn responding, “She’s my daughter.” Gittes […]

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Men Now Want Access to Uterine Transplants

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It isn’t good enough that men want to compete in woman’s sports and invade women’s spaces, rendering sex-based protections null and void. Now, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has published the findings from the largest study on its kind, “Perceptions and Motivations for Uterus Transplant in Transgender Women.” This study looked at reproductive aspirations of transgender women (biological males). […]

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I Donated My Eggs and Got Stage 4 Cancer

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Maggie was a young, bright-eyed college student when she was first recruited as an egg donor. She eagerly signed up to donate her eggs with plans of helping families while earning some money for her future. Instead, she got stage 4 invasive ductal carcinoma, a diagnosis she is certain she acquired as a result of […]

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Biggest Winners and Losers of 2020

It is that time of year again, when I look back over the past 12 months with an eye toward identifying those whose lives and contributions actively promoted and affirmed our shared human future (winners), and those who did not (losers). You can review last year’s picks here. Winners: 2020 has been deemed the “year of […]

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Movie Review: Ghosts of the Republique

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Last month, film director Jonathon Narducci released Ghosts of the Republique, a full length documentary that chronicles a French gay couple’s international surrogacy journey. We first meet bright eyed, soft spoken Nicolas and Aurelian as they prepare for their wedding day, two gentle, charming souls who share genuine affection and desire nothing but to live […]

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Women As Guinea Pigs in Biotechnical Research

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From remarks delivered at the Heritage Foundation’s recent panel, “Bioethics: What It Is and Why It Matters“ In 1985, just seven years after the birth of Louise Brown (1978), the world’s first ‘test tube’ baby, Gena Corea published her very important book titled, The Mother Machine: Reproductive Technologies from Artificial Insemination to Artificial Wombs. In […]

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This Week in Bioethics #113

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***Watch our live discussion of This Week in Bioethics on Facebook or on YouTube*** 1. Nightmare Surrogacy Experience Toni, a surrogate mother from Iowa, says of her experience: “It’s been a nightmare. It has almost destroyed my family.” Toni first reached out to us about this time last year. This week, she and Jennifer recorded […]

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Taking on Big Fertility David vs. Goliath Style!

David and Goliath

Raise your hand if you can’t believe how fast 2018 is flying by! As I write, it’s almost May, nearly halfway through the year—wow how time flies. I’m just back from speaking at Harvard Law School, and the students there were very busy with final papers and end of year exams. Of course, this was […]

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Consuming Fertility

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The Washington Post recently ran an article outlining a whole range of ways in which the business of fertility is reaching new heights of consumerism as consumers go about consuming more and more fertility products and services. Would-be parents seeking donor eggs and sperm can pick and choose from long checklists of physical and intellectual […]

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Fertility Industry Dehumanizes Surrogates

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As a paid consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture, I have become informed about issues to which I might otherwise have paid scant attention. This is particularly true with regard to the increasingly dark side of the fertility industry, about which the CBC has been doing splendidly illuminative work. It has really opened […]

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Who Cares About IVF Dangers?

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The British Medical Journal has published a cautionary article warning of the potential dangers of IVF. From “Are We Overusing IVF?” Extended use of IVF also increases the risk of harm. Multiple pregnancies are associated with maternal and perinatal complications such as gestational diabetes, fetal growth restriction, and pre-eclampsia as well as premature birth. And […]

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Fertility Alimony?

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In a recent New York Times editorial, Sarah Richards raised some provocative questions as to whether fertility treatment should be covered in divorce settlements. In her op-ed “Alimony for Eggs,” Richards profiles a New Jersey couple where the wife’s lawyer is arguing that the husband should pay $20,000 towards the wife’s egg freezing and storage […]

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The Fertility Industry Superhighway

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Miriam Zoll, author of the recent book Cracked Open: Liberty, Fertility and the Pursuit of High-Tech Babies, has a terrific piece out in today’s New York Times on “Selling the Fantasy of Fertility” to those struggling with infertility. She’s co-written the piece with Pamela Tsigdinos, and their voices are important as they write from their […]

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Protect Your Fertility

By Jennifer Lahl, CBC President I recently wrote about women who wait later into life to conceive and find they struggle with what they call “infertility.” In fact, there is no infertility as a result of aging; rather it is the biological reality of menopause. Menopause is a natural and normal event that occurs in […]

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