Friday, May 11, 2007

“Hands off our ovaries!”
Feminists, pro-lifers campaign together to stop egg harvesting for cloning research

May 11, 2007

Opposition to the abuse of women in the acquisition of human ova for research has brought together an unlikely coalition: pro-life and pro-choice activists. According to pro-family Cara Cook, conservative Christian activists like herself have been willing to work together with feminist women's health advocates on the single issue of opposing egg-harvesting because of health risks to women.

"In the last year alone, two women who have undergone egg extraction in the United Kingdom have died after developing severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which causes rapid accumulation of fluid in the abdomen, chest, and around the heart. Symptoms include severe pelvic pain, nausea, vomiting, weight gain, ovarian enlargement, respiratory problems, blood clots and liver dysfunction," says Cook, who is operations assistant for Concerned Women for America and a graduate of Notre Dame University.

Opponents argue that if egg harvesting becomes widely used for the purposes of stem- cell research and therapeutic cloning, the number of cases of severe OHSS will rise considerably. Dr. David Prentice of the Family Research Council points out that of the 80 million women who would be required for egg harvesting to treat diabetes alone, as many as 800,000 would experience OHSS.
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