Do You Think This Should Be Legal In Canada?

Canada
November 1, 2010 12:47pm CST
In the States, you can sell sperm and eggs for money. In Canada it is illegal to do that. You can donate sperm or eggs, but you are not allowed to recieve financial compensation. In fact, I believe it is illegal for a surrogate mother to recieve financial compensation (other than renumeration for medical costs) for carrying and giving birth to someone else's child! What do you think of this? Do you think it is ethically wrong to receive money for sperm or eggs? It doesn't hurt a person to sell these things, it's not like selling a piece of your liver which would require major surgery (and selling organs is illegal pretty much everywhere) but Canada seems to lump this in the same category as selling organs.
2 people like this
6 responses
@formidexo (1351)
• Canada
1 Nov 10
I think there's something wrong with this whole picture! A child should be the product of an act of love between a husband and wife. That's why the act of making love gives so much pleasure because love is in the picture. I don't see love between two people when it comes to donating sperms or eggs or surrogate parenting. I think the way things are done these days breaks a higher moral code.
1 Nov 10
I see plenty of love in the parents-to-be who want so much to have a child that they seek out a donor to overcome their own unfortunate biological shortcomings.
1 person likes this
@formidexo (1351)
• Canada
1 Nov 10
I am not trying to pass judgment on anyone. I have found that "true love" is not a mechanical or genetic thing but a matter of the heart. I have been able to love many people (that I have met from the volunteer work that I do) including children (step-children and others) that had no immediate genetic attachment. There are many orphans in this world that could use loving parents. I still hold that the accepting of donor sperm or eggs is unnatural and breaks a higher ethical code. This is my opinion!
1 person likes this
@buenavida (9985)
• Sweden
2 Nov 10
One woman I know well went to another country in order to get pregnant by donated sperm. She is now a single mother of a beautiful child, but I feel sorry for the child. It seems that she is looking for a dad as she has seen other children have fathers. This is simply not how we were created. A child needs both parents, and I think this child will never learn to know her biological father which may cause problems when she grows up. There are so many children who need parents in this world, and it should not be too difficult to adopt some of them if people really want to have children. If I were thirty years younger and happily married, I would adopt - but now I have to be "grandma" to children of my younger friends.
@buenavida (9985)
• Sweden
4 Nov 10
Well, everyone has the freedom to choose the option they want, but I would definitely adopt a child that already exists and really needs parents. All humans are related so taking care of a child has not much to do with the genes, but how much love I can give to it.
• Canada
2 Nov 10
Well sometimes a couple uses donated sperm because the man is infertile. Or donated eggs with the man's sperm because there is something wrong with the woman's eggs. Then the child still has two parents.
• Canada
6 Nov 10
There are many children in the world who desperately need the love and care of good parents. If I could not conceive I would certainly try to adopt.
@IsisGreen (554)
1 Nov 10
Yes, I think it's best for this to be legal and regulated. What you really want to avoid is people not going through the proper channels of safety checks (and documents for the eventual offspring) because they end up doing a transaction on the black market.
• Canada
2 Nov 10
Well it would be awfully dangerous for a woman to let a back-alley quack extract her eggs under unsanitary conditions.
@sender621 (14894)
• United States
2 Nov 10
Your sperm and your eggs belong to your body. You should have the right to say what you do with them. it is a matter of choice. it is a matter of what is right or wrong for you. The law shouldn;t decide this for you.
• Canada
2 Nov 10
Some people would say the same about our lungs and kidneys. They are in our bodies and belong to us, and we can live healthy lives with just one. Should we be able to sell the other if we like? That is a tricky question.
@trruk1 (1028)
• United States
1 Nov 10
I don't see why it should be illegal. It is not like selling a kidney (or a child). It is more like selling your hair.
• Canada
1 Nov 10
I agree completely. I'm not sure why it is illegal here, but it doesn't seem to be a big issue. Of course, it happens anyway. Like if you donate your eggs to someone, they find a way to make you a "gift" that is around the amount they would be paying you if you both lived in the US lol.
@Cutie18f (9551)
• Philippines
2 Nov 10
LOL. How different are our cultures. In our country, all of those things are not allowed. Those that make use of artificial methods are considered sinful and criminal. People here never ever imagine those things to be happening anywhere. How different indeed are our cultures.
3 Nov 10
Out of interest Cutie, why is it considered sinful?
• Canada
2 Nov 10
Well it is sad when a couple has all the resources to be amazing parents; they have the finances to give the child what it needs, they have the love and patience to raise a child to be a responsible, moral human being, and yet they cannot have a child because the man's sperm do not swim well or the woman's fallopian tubes are blocked. It is still true that they could adopt a child, though.