Yes, that's the latest proposal from the advocates of embryo stem cell research.

Last month New York became the first US state to allow scientists to pay women for their eggs. Women will be paid between $US5,000 and $US10,000 ($A6,200 and $A12,600) for each egg harvested.

Now Professor Loane Skene, from the University of Melbourne, who was the the deputy chair of the 2005 Lockhart Committee on Human Cloning and Embryo Research, is recommending that Australian women should be paid for their eggs.

Why? To obtain MORE eggs for embryonic stem cell research. She says women have to be given drugs and have invasive surgery for the eggs to be harvested - so should be paid!

We must remember that the eggs would be used to create embryos - the stem cells are then harvested and the embryos killed. In addition, there are serious health risks to the women who undergo these invasive procedures.

More below, but please vote first on the Herald Sun Poll!

ACTION: Please vote NO! ... click here.

Should women be allowed to sell their eggs for stem cell research? 

Current vote: Yes 58% (170 votes)   No 41% (122 votes)    Total votes - 292 
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The federal government will review the embryonic stem cell legislation in 2010 - including payments for egg donations.

Loane Skene said 'If we are going to do this, then we have to have a discussion about it'.

BUT - and it's a big BUT...

That presupposes that Australia IS going to allow payments for eggs.

Prof Skene presented her views at a meeting at the University of Melbourne last night - and was interviewed on the ABC.
Bioethicist Nicholas Tonti Tonti-Filippini and Associate Professor Bernadette Tobin, the director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney have both strongly criticised the proposal.

The editorial in the Herald Sun strongly opposed payments to women for their eggs.

We oppose any embryo stem research and certainly believe that women should not either be encouraged to donate their eggs or be paid for them. Paying women for eggs will mean pressure is placed on poor women or vulnerable women to sell their eggs, placing them at risk.

Adult stem cells are already providing MANY cures and treatments - 73 - in an ethical way!

See http://www.stemcellresearch.org/ for full details.