Guest Author - Previous BellaOnline Editor

More than once in my life I have casually contemplated donating my eggs. (Particularly when I’ve wished we had a little more money!)

I’m not using them, right? Shouldn’t someone else benefit from my “extra parts”? (Assuming my eggs are even usable!)

Then I start to wonder what it would feel like to know that my genetic material was “out there somewhere,” walking around. Would the child look like me? Would he or she like to write? Play the violin? Be able to live on chocolate and cheese?

Would I walk down the street wondering, “Did I help make that kid? What about that one?”

What if something went wrong, and the child had some kind of disability? Would I want to be responsible for the challenges that child would face throughout his or her life?

After weighing all of the options, I came to the conclusion that donating eggs is not something I would do.

It just seems sort of strange for me to not want kids of my own, and yet give someone else my eggs to make something that would at least, in part, be mine.

Of course, if your reasoning for being child free is to help control the human population, then the question of egg or sperm donation is simple and obvious. No way!

And what about all of the kids that already exist out there? The ones I see on local commercials, who can’t even find a foster parent, let alone parents to give them a permanent home. Is it right to bring another life into this world when so many children are already suffering, in my country and around the world?

I suppose when you donate your eggs, the child grows inside another human being, whose body is actually nourishing the child and in essence, giving it life. That has to feel closer to “having your own child” than adopting would, if that was the route a couple wanted to take.

Like at least some of you, I’m sure, I feel guilty once in awhile when I think about the fact that I COULD have children, but I don’t WANT children. I know that women struggling with infertility just cannot understand someone like me. It has to be horrible to want something you can’t ever have.

I believe that all of us have free will, and we can choose anything we want in this life. Although I don’t think I would ever donate my eggs, I can understand the motivation behind choosing to do so.

Egg donors are helping people get something they truly want. If you are willing to make the physical sacrifice to make that happen for someone, I’m all for it.

I have no idea what the process is like. If you’ve ever donated your eggs, please drop me a line and tell me how it works. I’d like to write another article in the future to let people know first hand what it is like.