This interview was conducted between Tuesday, 31 March 2009 (12:52 AM EST) and Friday, 3 April 2009 (9:25 AM EST) via e-mail.Catherine Lacey (
hellocatherinelacey@gmail.com
) isan MFA candidate in Nonfiction at Columbia University. Her website is
P. H. MADORE
:
What gave you the idea todonate eggs? And twice? Vanity?
CATHERINE LACEY:
Vanity! That's a reasonI never considered! I suppose you're right,though. There is an element of ego-boosting when a geneticist, psychologist, and a few doctors determine your ovum to be amarketable commodity (though the actualprocess of donating makes you feel a little bitlike a farm animal.)The truth is, you don't get to "decide" you want to sell eggs. You apply to a fertility clinicand after a battery of tests they approve you andthen a couple picks you based on a profile thatdoesn't include your photograph or name. Why I decided to apply is simple: no onepays young, unknown writers to write their first book and I just don't have the energy and
patience to work full time and write full time.Other, more complicated factors went into thedecision, though. I am very close with a mom who had her kids after years of invasive IVFtreatments. She wanted kids really, really bad. And she is a kickass mom and her kids areawesome. I hope a woman like that is havingmy genetic baby, but I am willing to bet that whoever it is/was will be at least a better momthan the average mom or even if she's not thekid will grow up in Manhattan with money, which is better than I'm doing so far. Also, I think there is a weird/interestingelement of technology and evolutionintersecting here that has created a way forgenetically fit but financially challengedindividuals (me) to send their genetic materialinto Manhattan's financially secure butprenatally challenged families. (It costs aninfertile couple more that $20,000 to attemptto get pregnant with donor eggs in Manhattan.)I am securing power/resources for my future"offspring," but without actually being a"Mom."
PHM:
That's a really interesting thing to say,i. e., you're helping to make the financiallysolvent/dominant also geneticallysolvent/dominant. I think your photographwould get you more sales, or is that how it works? Now I see: the reason is money, which
is fascinating. I know people who make aliving from doing weird experiments for thegovernment and private companies, like four grand a pop, and selling their plasma. Would you say those things are relative to what you're doing? I kind of have this image of youwalking into a clinic all concessionaire saying,"Eggs for sale! Fertile, fresh, 20-somethingeggs! Get 'em while they're good!" I'm of course being ridiculous. Have you thought about the possibilities of someday trying toestablish contact with the anonymous coupleyou're helping? Would that get you arrested or just weird looks?
CL:
I would also add that by donating eggs I amobliquely filling the ubiquitous desire toadvance in the evolution game. It's not just likeI am "helping" the infertile couple out there.The eggs become a commodity in the exchange between donor and recipient, and in addition to being compensated, I also get the benefit of continuing my genetic line.I would say that donating eggs is a littlelike donating plasma or blood or somethingexcept the whole process is more involved. Ihad to go to the clinic every other or every morning for about two weeks and then there was the surgery. I was lucky that I didn't haveany real side effects from the process, but it stilltook a lot of time.
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