Regardless on which side of the fertility fence you reside, let's face the reality that egg and sperm donors create moral issues. This issue affects everyone from the donor and the donee to the medical professionals and the children produced.

Medical professionals face moral dilemmas in the forms of these questions:
Am I participating in eugenics by choosing only the best donor candidates?

What do I do with abandoned embryos?
What happens when I find out the hormones we gave the egg donors have long term ill effects on her own fertility?
How do I feel about catering to only those who can afford to buy a child?
Am I creating an unfair playing field against the babies born nature's way?

Donors face different issues:
How will I feel if my biological child finds me and my only answer is "I needed the money?"
If I never have children of my own, will I regret this?
What if I decide later that I want my child back?

Childless women face the dilemmas of the donors, but from a different perspective:
What if my donor wants to be a part of my child's life?
How do I tell my child I bought them based on the donor's appearance and talents?
Am I cheating the natural order by having the perfect child?
Will I still love this child if it is not perfect?

Children who are born of in vitro fertilization of another's egg and sperm than their parents face many of the dilemmas of adopted children:
Why would someone give up the chance to have me?
What if my parents had not chosen me?
Do my parents love me only because they could not have a child of their own?
What if my "real parents" want me back? Will I want to go?

It is clear that in an industry that is relatively devoid of regulation by any government oversight the answers to these questions must be determined before the donation takes place. Before one decides to choose to be a part of the "tailor-made baby" generation, counseling and soul-searching is an absolute necessity, whether donor or donee. Without a doubt, counseling must be a paramount concern for the child.

Learn more about this author, Ann Marie Dwyer.
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