It’s a natural human instinct to want your natural born children to bear at least a passing resemblance to you. Depending on your ethnic background, features such as skin color, eye color, and hair texture can be very important in achieving that reproductive goal.
The fact that it’s a natural human instinct doesn’t make it any less potentially awkward in a society that that has its antenna up for signs of racial prejudice, cultural appropriation, and social injustice. As a result, there are many women or couples of color who struggle with how to go about finding the right egg donor for IVF and other fertility treatments.
A recent example of the sensitivity surrounding the search for donors recently unfolded in Seattle, Washington. There, city council candidate Egan Orion created and shared a Facebook post seeking an egg donor who had to be “educated, small to medium build, and have Southern European white blood (Spanish, Italian, Latina). Also, it was deemed okay for a donor to be “partially white or black or Asian or Native American of Middle Eastern.”
The post created an uproar on social media, where one Twitter user compared Orion to a “modern day slave owner”. “Seattle city council candidate Egan Orion crowdsources embryos from “partial” WOC like a modern day slave owner attempting to force breed at a slave auction,” read the tweet. The Twitter user went on to accuse Orion of “treating race as a designer brand” and wanting a child with “diverse heritage without apparent cultural or social considerations.”
We can’t speak to Orion’s motivations, but we highlight the uproar over someone seeking an egg donor of color because it demonstrates how difficult things can be for prospective parents seeking an egg donor who matches a specific race or physical description. This makes it difficult for black women and couples who simply want an egg donor from someone with a reasonable chance of producing a child who looks like them.
Luckily for you, you don’t have to resort to creating Facebook posts in search of a black egg donor. At CRM we recognize the need for diversity in egg donors in the Twin Cities and the fact that we have a long way to go. While egg donation is on the rise overall, there a disproportionate number of those donors are white, which leaves a very small pool of potential donors for a black family to choose from if they desire a donor who shares their race.
Learn more about our donor program here.
