We live in a society in which everything is sold as a commodity. If egg donation is ethically acceptable when done without payment, why does payment make it wrong?
What is wrong with allowing payment for egg donation is that it changes the whole nature of the situation, and inexorably moves it into the sphere of trade and the free market. It’s true enough that in our free market society everything gets turned into a commodity. However, two wrongs do not make a right. In general, capitalism expands by a relentless process of commodification of what was previously non-commodified, the accompanying privatisation of common resources, and the subjection of every aspect of human life to the market. It generally makes sense to oppose that, and the proposal to allow the selling of eggs is just the latest example, which also happens to have a palpably bad effect on poor women’s health. In the area of human tissue, the traditional, non-free-market system for blood and organ donation, based on altruism, the gift relationship, and non-commodification is still strong and viable and should be defended. Over the past 30 years, as biotechnology developments have
