El precio de ser madre

Since 2009, human reproduction treatments have grown exponentially in Spain. This is due to the delayed motherhood of late capitalism in general, and the global economic crisis of 2008 in particular. But the crisis and the forms of life implicit in this capitalism are not the only reason for the boom in assisted reproduction in Spain. Many of these treatments require the use of donated sperm and eggs and, unlike what happens in most European Union countries, donation is anonymous in Spain. Anonymity encourages many women to donate eggs in exchange for a reward of 1,200 euros, and the surplus causes many recipients from all over Europe and also from North Africa to come to Spain to get inseminated. The maximum number of babies born from the eggs of each donor is six, a figure that should be controlled through a state and European registry that has been approved for many years but has not yet been created. In our country, if she goes to several different clinics, a woman can give as many times as she wants, either for altruism, for financial reward, or for both reasons. Almost all assisted reproduction clinics are private. The implementation of the registry does not suit many of them, in the same way that the end of anonymity would not suit others either. Without guarantee of anonymity, the donors would expose themselves to the fact that the babies born from their eggs could contact them when they reached the age of majority, as is the case in other countries. The right to know one's origins is stated in the Declaration of Human Rights and in the Spanish Constitution, and anonymous donations contradict national and international legislation. However, egg donation and assisted reproductive treatments are becoming more common in an increasingly less fertile society that postpones motherhood for as long as possible. These treatments are part of the present and the future. Assisted reproduction allows many women who cannot be mothers and wish to be, but the activity of the sector raises many questions that as a society we must answer. What do we do with the more than 70,000 frozen embryos that exist only in Catalonia? Should we keep talking about egg donation or should we talk openly about buying and selling eggs? How do we ensure that the donation is fair and not a desperate financial outlet for precarious young girls selling their fertility? To what extent should we be able to manipulate the genetics of the children resulting from assisted reproduction? What are the real risks of repeated exposure to the hormonal treatment essential to carry out any donation cycle? Should we rethink the imperative of this motherhood at any cost or should we instead give free rein to the advances of a booming sector?