A revolution in reproductive technology is upon us, obviously having its greatest impact on women. Society is barely ready to understand its implications, let alone predict its consequences. On Friday, January 27, 2006, Ana Lita, Executive Director of the IHEU-Appignani Center for Bioethics brought together a varied panel of bioethicists and women's rights advocates to discuss the issues involved.

The most moving speaker was Dr Adrian Sangeorzan, a gynecologist who spoke of his personal experience working in Romania through the period when a Communist dictator tried to produce a huge increase in population by forbidding both contraception and abortion. This unique experience in human history resulted in an explosion in the numbers of unwanted and uncared for children, tragic deaths from botched abortions, and an onslaught on the human rights of women and their families.

The problem today for those concerned with ethics and human rights is much more complex than the brutal coercion of Ceausescu's Romania. The debate about stem cell research, opposed by anti-abortion activists has driven people into camps polarized as much by confusion and misunderstanding as by genuine ethical differences. Stem cell research still very much in its early stages requires quantities of reproductive materials. This research at present uses materials taken from embryos originally intended for fertility therapy but discarded for medical reasons. However to the critics of abortion, "Are embryos to be protected like people?" is an active issue.

For researchers eager to pursue the exciting if still very theoretical possibilities of SCNT (somatic nuclear cell transfer), as research cloning or therapeutic cloning, is euphemistically called, there is tremendous prestige and potentially lucrative outcome for success. However, pursuing this work requires raw materials from women' bodies.

The enormous and growing demand for fertility therapy for women who are having difficulty in having children provides a burgeoning and fairly open market for female eggs. This market is legal and visible. Posters of smiling blondes with high IQs are mixing flattery, altruism and financial need to encourage young women at Ivy League universities to sell their eggs at seductive prices of $4-7.000 per donation. Dr Fischbach, Director of the Center for Bioethics at Columbia University says she tears down a poster every time she sees it, but someone always replaces it.

Why not encourage young women to sell their eggs? Judy Norsigian, Executive Director of Our Bodies, Ourselves has called attention to rare but serious, even life threatening danger from drugs to overstimulate the ovaries. The drug most commonly used is Lupron, which has caused a range of problems reported to the Food and Drug Administration, and has not been approved for multiple egg extraction, an off-label, though legal use. Researchers have given warnings that many side effects are not showing signs of reversibility even months after stopping their use. The Chair of the Senate Health Committee who has promoted stem cell research in California, Debra Ortiz, plans a bill to protect women who sell their eggs for stem cell research. Stringent standards and provision for medical care is needed for donors who may end up with tragic medical consequences. One of the more serious issues, Norsigian notes, is the absence of any good quality long term safety data on the infertility drugs commonly used.

Because protests against stem cell research are coming from the anti-abortion community, advocates for womens' health may be reluctant to become involved. Safer ways to harvest eggs are emerging and need to be promoted. In the meantime, given the conditions of the market system in American health care, the power of the pharmaceutical industry over the FDA, and the eagerness driving medical research, stringent standards to protect young women donors, including young medical researchers are urgently needed. This is an important area for bioethicists and advocates for reproductive rights and human rights for women to become involved. Thanks are due to Ana Lita, and the Bioethics Institute for bringing this topic to public attention.

Phyllis Ehrenfeld
Representative to the National Service Conference of the American Ethical Union to the United Nations