In New York, stem-cell researchers will be allowed to pay women for their eggs.
Rep. Tammy Baldwin introduces a bill to end health-care disparities faced by LGBTQ Americans.
Lynn Nottage on the how a playwright's race and gender affects whether their works are produced on Broadway.
Why women-only networking is different than discriminatory all-boys clubs of the past.
"Neda is not the first person to die in this. She's not the first person whose death has been captured on video camera, either. But she was young, slender, and pretty, and so Western media images are obsessed with watching her die over and over."
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"Neda is not the first person to die in this. She's not the first person whose death has been captured on video camera, either. But she was young, slender, and pretty, and so Western media images are obsessed with watching her die over and over."
Similary, people disappear in suspicious circumstances all the time. But to get Greta Van Susteren's attention, they better be young, white, female, slender, and hopefully rich.
It seems like a huge propaganda campaign...by the American media, quite frankly. The Iran coverage in general is strange to me...
iirc, wasn't her death used as propaganda by Iranians first, before being picked up by the rest of the world?
Yeah, I think so. Make no mistake, her death is horrible-but the American media has really picked up on certain aspects of the election protests and not others. One aspect has been numerous photos of pretty young women.
"Neda is not the first person to die in this. She's not the first person whose death has been captured on video camera, either. But she was young, slender, and pretty, and so Western media images are obsessed with watching her die over and over.
I was thinking the EXACT same thing. Her death is tragic, but I can't think of a good reason as to why it'd get so much more media attention than the other deaths.
It's simply because she's pretty, thin, and most importantly female. They're videos out there of people dying in the Iranian protests long before hers and a lot afterwards; the key difference is that most of those videos consist of older men dying. I guess the media is constantly showing us Neda just to get us to sympathize more because she was a young delicate little flower who couldn't defend herself in a man’s protest.
You can simply go to liveleak if you want to see the horrible stuff going on there. Some videos show men being dragged through the streets while handcuffed, yet the mainstream media seems to skip right over these gruesome videos and show us videos of women getting hit with a baton a few times. Because apparently we're so weak and defenseless people are suppose to get extra mad when we're put in dangerous situation.
Is anyone worried about people selling their eggs for research? This is a serious question: I waver back and forth on this issue.
I can only speak for myself, obviously, but I think it's awesome. Altruistic donation is great and all, but the hormones and the pain are a serious matter and donors ought to be compensated for it. I've long been interested in donating eggs to science, but wouldn't dream of doing it without getting paid for my time, effort, and discomfort.
Yeah, I think that the trouble does make compensation worthwhile. And honestly, I'm happy about the research, because hey, I'd love to see cures for lingering, horrible diseases. I have some of the same worries about this that I have about surrogacy, or selling organs. I see it as a way for those with money (i.e., huge pharma, big research industrial giants) to take something essential from those who need money, and for the relationship to be unfair and inherently coercive. It's fine if you have something someone wants-but when that something is part of your body? This might be the stupidest analogy ever, but is this something like prostitution? The reason organ donation is encouraged is because it's _donation_ and therefore, there's theoretically no pressure for poorer people to donate organs in order to get money they desparately need. I'm sure there's a good oversight program in place.
But I don't have a good answer to this.
I can understand the concerns, and they're certainly valid. I think this is less unsettling to me than, say, organ selling for a couple of reasons. One is that those eggs are probably not going to be used anyway. The other is that the absence of those eggs from a woman's body isn't going to affect the way she lives her life the way, for example, donating a kidney would. Of course, there is a real safety concern with the hormones for the harvesting, and I gather that there are potential side-effects on fertility later in life. I'm not sure about statistics on that, though.
Also, frankly, I'd rather have more women donating eggs to science than IVF, which already pays. (Full disclosure: I'm childfree and therefore biased as all hell, but I'm also very interested in the potential for major scientific breakthroughs with stem-cell research.) And while it's cold comfort at best, this may open up an opportunity for women who need the money but don't fit the commonly sought IVF egg donation criteria. (i.e. White, "attractive", college-educated, as few scary illnesses in the family medical history as possible, etc.)
Yes. Exactly. I've been interested in selling (straight up, unabashed commerce) my eggs in order to pay off my student loans more quickly, but I didn't want them to go to rich people obsessed with pregnancy, babies, and otherwise making the planet a more crowded place. If I'm going to raise a child, I'll adopt--years of family law showed me that light. But when it comes to my eggs... give me the cash.
My question is: will that money be taxed, and if so, how much?
I'd be interested in selling my eggs too! Damn student loans...
I personally think that this is great - I've never understood why paying women for eggs, which is a complicated and painful procedure, hasn't been considered as acceptable as men selling sperm, which, let's face it, is actually quite pleasant for the men involved.
I agree-This is a lot more justified for me than IVF. And medical research test subjects are paid all the time. I think this is a fine line to walk, and needs to be walked carefully. Any time that human bodies are commercialized, something happens to make it exploitative, or at the very least, to give it a great potential for exploitation. And, at the heart of that, is the idea that you could potentially endanger your health because you're desparate for money, and that's sad for me-I wish it didn't have to be like that.
thank you-I realize the safety questions about the drugs, but otherwise, what are women who donate eggs giving up? eggs that would be passed out as a period anyway? fertility that they may not want. woo hoo. someone mentioned prostitution, so I make the same arguments about eggs as about that-it's about time someone realized that women aren't defined by their reproductive organs.
I take the opposite view; I strongly believe that it should be legal to sell a kidney. As you say, there are people who desperately need money, and they need the money far more than they need to have two kidneys. Preventing them from selling an organ means that they simply won't get the money that they desperately need. Not being able to sell organs makes people poorer than they otherwise would be.
But giving them money for their organs encourages them to take an action that endangers their health, when they shouldn't be so poor or desparate in the first place. I think you have the pragmatic part of that side of the debate down, and I think it's valid. But I also think the potential for exploitation is very great, and increases the more desparate the sellers are.
I am extremely concerned. The research on the drugs they use to get the donor women to hyper-produce eggs are NOT tested well enough, yet, IMO.
I am also concerned about exploitation of poor women by companies which want to harvest eggs to sell to biotech firms (now being funded by your New York state government!) -- one of the few growth industries, andpotentially big profits.
Hands Off Our Ovaries has more on these concerns, and more.
http://handsoffourovaries.com/
I still feel sad for Neda, because she was a human being, and she was shot for no reason and she died publicly, and horribly and painfully.
Is that somehow minimized because she was white and thin?
I doubt I will be appreciated for this comment. I read Feministing regularly and applaud the critical thinking. Sometimes though, for me it is very basic. She was killed and I grieve for her.
Sorry, I meant pretty and thin, and I wrote 'white'. I had Argon's comment in my mind and wrote without thinking.
No worries. I dont know for sure but she may have been of aryan ethnicity, you dont get much "whiter" than that and it has many of the same ramifications in Iranian society as it does in this one.
No, it's not "minimized" at all. The point is, although her death is tragic, it's JUST as tragic as the other deaths.. But her death is getting so much more media attention for some reason. Why?
Because she died right in front of us? Because I saw blood stream from her nose, her mouth, her eyes? because I had never seen anyone die before? Before she was choking? Because of her eyes, the way they stared?
I won't minimize it. She died, horribly. I watched, I grieved. It was TERRIBLE. I won't pretend it was because she was thin and pretty. What a fucking awful thing to say, really, when you think about it -- the way we objectify pretty women.
How do you think *she* felt, lying there, dying?
What about the other videos of people dying in Iran? Why haven't they gotten so much attention?
Just because Neda is getting more media attention doesn't marginalize the other men and women that have died in Iran.
I find your comment rather offensive. Since in your mind, in order to show sympathy towards Neda we need to show some sort of "death montage" of all the other Iranians that died during the protest.
Neda is getting more media attention because there was a video dedicated to her.
Not only that but women are making up a large majority of the protesters. So Neda could help serve as a martyr towards women getting better treatment in Iran.
That is why she is so popular.
Have you seen the video of Neda's death? Its pretty horrific. I think its pretty obtuse to not see that as a possible explanation for the attention surrounding her video
Agreed.
And can't it just be the human reaction to a person dying right.in.front.of.us? Because the immediacy of video meant that's what it felt like. When the blood streamed from her nose, I felt that she was choking to death right in front of me. And my God. I felt her dying. Poor woman.
I agree. I didn't want to watch that, but I did. It still makes me tear up.
I want to donate my eggs! I don't think I can, though. I underwent cancer surgery back in early 2005 to remove my thyroid and a big-ol tumor (no biggie, easy treatment and post-cancer years for me) and now I'm on hormones. Anyway, I read that the procedure for the whole donating process involves extra hormones, and I'm not sure that's they best for me.
I would LOVE to donate, though, because I support Stem Cell research.
Does anybody know where I can get MORE information than just the basics? Like, the name of a doctor I could call, if you have to live in New York to do it, if someone takign thyroid hormones could do it...
I could use the cash, too. I've got $500 in debt (not including $13,000 so far in student loans) and I could USE that money. Besides, I don't have a job at the moment, and I'd really, really, really, really like to be able to invest a lil $$$ as a feel good.
The New York Times has a pretty good article on the gender bias in theater study.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/theater/24play.html?_r=1&em
They also have the study itself - a 173 page PDF - and a PowerPoint presentation.