The High Price of In Vitro Fertilization :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The High Price of In Vitro FertilizationMAKE A DREAM COME TRUE.GIVE THE GIFT OF LIFE BE AN EGG DONOR. $6,500 hire AND EXPENSES PAID. When twenty-year-old maria Slone first saw the ad in her college newspaper, she remembers thinking, Damn, thats a lot of money She called up immediately, envisioning an egg-plucking process that would be as active and effortless as sperm donation. Disappointingly, the receptionist at Woman to Woman Fertility Clinic didnt give her the time of day, mostly because that was last spring and Maria wasnt twenty-one yet, but also because she seemed a tad too money-hungry for the well-to-do clinic. Looking back, Maria smiles a little sheepishly. Now, one year later, and halfway through and through the process of donating her nut to an infertile couple, she knows what shes in for, both emotionally and physically. Already, shes wrestled with the idea of selling her genetic material to strangersshes taking the droll step of meeting with the couple who cho se her genes from a stack of manila folders. And now shes all overcoming a lifelong abhorrence of needles by playing doctorshes injecting a syringe full of milk into a grapefruit, mentally bracing herself for the ovary-stimulating hormones shell inject into her own thighs and buttocks for ten days next month. But Marias taking both the emotional and physical sacrifices in stride because at the end of August by and by ten or more of her eggs are retrieved from her ovariesthe Woman to Woman Fertility Clinic will cut her a $4,000 check. The payment promises a soothing aloe to Marias staggering list of fiscal woes crushing legal fees, spiraling credit card debt, student loan payments, and a hankering for a liposuction procedure that could cost up to $4,000. Already, she spends long, hot Saturdays baby sitting for a hyper five-year-old boy, and on weekdays leads troops of rowdy teenagers on tours through the State Capitol. Both jobs barely subsidize rent, groceries, and the weeken d recreational pleasures that 21-year-old college students indulge in. Thats why, after being rebuffed once, Maria called again four months ago. The information packet came in the mail only three days after Maria dialed the 1-800 number. From the vital statistics she provided over the phoneblond hair, blue eyesshe was an instant hit. The receptionist at the fertility clinic made her voice buttery sweet, over-eager to please.