my mom forwarded this advertisement from denver’s craigslist. it took a few days for me to digest what i read–women’s eggs are being solicited over the internet. i’m aware of surrogate mothers, women who carry babies for families who have trouble conceiving, but didn’t realize western society had reached the point of soliciting eggs on a website accessed daily by thousands, if not millions, of people.
times are hard and the fine print reads “compensation ($8,000-$10,000).” i’m sure this bribe compensation has enticed many women. at this point, i could go on a tangential tirade about how it’s a product of this hyper-competitive society that women are pressured into delaying childbirth, how corporate owned food sources are damaging our bodies making it difficult to conceive, or i could dissect the irony that while human bodies can no longer be sold, their embryos can. instead, i’ll settle on the age-old adage: now, i’ve seen it all…
*update 6/8/11*
i had not seen it all. a 17-year-old young man in china sold his kidney for an ipad 2. he was contacted by an online broker [insert similarities to the above advertisement here]. i could go on a tangential tirade about consumerism and materialism, best evidenced by the depreciating value of human life (or body parts) compared to our insatiable appetites for material goods, i could take this thought farther and draw parallels to the rash of murders and robberies that occurred for air jordans, but i won’t get on my soapbox. i’ll settle on the age-old adage: what is this world coming to…
