Eggs for sale

We all know you can buy books over the Internet. Some of us order our weekly groceries in this way. But did you know that you can bid for human eggs online, provided by beautiful women? The New York Times described www.ronsangels.com as smacking of 'Darwin-based eugenics, Playboy-style sensibilities and eBay-type commerce' (an online auction, for those not au fait with the eWorld). Other commentators have described it as 'frightening and horrible' and 'disgusting and abhorrent'. The message seems to be clear: people just don't like the idea that infertile couples can pay huge sums of money for 'beautiful eggs'. But I wonder whether all the fuss is really justified, given existing practices in egg donation and the realities of the genetic lottery.

Back in January, the New York Times reported on infertile couples who were advertising for egg donors at Ivy League colleges, promising payments of $7500. The couples sought egg donors who were not just attractive, but were clever too. The amount of money involved caused some discussion at the time, but payment to egg donors is standard practice in the United States. And given the commercial nature of fertility treatments - on both sides of the Atlantic - the exchange of large amount of money is an everyday feature of assisted reproduction. How different is all of this from the $50,000 that infertile couples are likely to offer the beautiful women on Ron Harris' website? Baby-making was commercialised a long time ago - how this latest feature of the fertility industry changes this is not entirely clear.

The other objection to the 'beautiful eggs' website is that it encourages the selection of desirable characteristics in children. It is, some say, little more than eugenics when parents seek to control the characteristics of their children in this way. Yet we know only too well the trouble that parents go to to make sure that their children fare well in life. And as we grow older, beauty and intelligence are probably the two things that we spend most time seeking to enhance. Is choosing an egg donor according to our aesthetic preferences any different from this?

I personally like tall, dark-haired men, have chosen a partner accordingly and hope my children will reflect that preference. In so doing, I am seeking a modicum of control over my future children. Does that make me a eugenicist? Of course, my children could end up inheriting all of the most undesirable characteristics in their parents. But that's what the genetic lottery is all about - chance. And in the same way, those couples who use the eggs of a beautiful woman in order to conceive may have an unpleasant shock. Beauty and intelligence are elusive things and can never be relied upon to make an appearance, no matter how hard we try to make it so.