Running Out of Eggs

Running Out of Eggs



“Sally, could you please schedule an appointment with the new President of the AMA?” asked my boss.

“Sure Doctor Theroux,” I replied, used to such requests.

I had worked for the Surgery for the past four years and was proud to be a part of the organisation that helped people realise their dreams of having children. Dr Theroux was considered one of the foremost authorities on IVF and a leading expert in Assisted Reproduction. As a med student it was my dream to be as good, if not better than my boss and working part time at the surgery had placed me ahead of the competition in securing work in the field once my internship was complete.

Lately the Doctor had been asking me to assist her in the labs working with harvested eggs on a new technique. The work was fascinating.

Dr Theroux had invented an instrument that was able to splice genetic material and determine the genome sequence of human egg cells. The feeling in the office was that of a major breakthrough with the results being so positive that we all felt that this could have a huge impact in the success of embryo survival in IVF procedures.

After updating the Doctors appointments I took her coffee in to the office.

“You had a cancellation tomorrow evening so the new Presidents coming in at 8pm,” I informed her, placing the coffee on the desk.

“Thanks Sally,” she acknowledged glancing up and smiling at me.

xxx

“We’re running out of eggs, Jill!”

I had my hand poised to knock on the Doctors door when I heard her voice from inside.

“What do you mean Kerryn? Surely there are enough donated eggs for you to complete the project?” A second voice responded.

I was mystified. I knew the Doctor had a meeting with the new President of the AMA but whoever was in with the Doctor sounded panicky.

I was just planning on telling her that I had finished all of the paperwork on the research and was excited about the results but I was unsure whether to interrupt. Before I could make my decision the Doctor continued.

“The inadvertent discovery of the genome sequencing has placed increased scrutiny on my project. This has meant that we’ve had to follow this line of research through to its conclusion leading to the reduction in available eggs for the original project. I’ve had Sally busy in the labs to get all of the work complete to present to the AMA.”

“So you’re still working on the other project?”

“Of course, but it’s getting difficult. I’m so close to success with this but there just aren’t enough eggs to complete both projects.”

The walls of the office crowded in on me. Was my boss, the woman I admired and wanted to emulate, into something morally ambiguous? It occurred to me that I was the only witness to this conversation and it would not be prudent to be caught listening to something that may not be legal. Suddenly every creak and whir in the office sounded exceptionally loud to me, as did my every breath.

A third, fainter voice could also be heard through the door.

“Kerryn, you assured us that this could be done.”

“And it can Danny. We have achieved partial success with parthenogenesis in that we don’t need sperm to fertilise an egg. Our next step is to use these results to combine two eggs together so that a child can be born from two mothers.”

The Doctors voice continued.

“We’ve always known we needed the right person to head up the AMA to enable us to go public with the results. You know as well as I that men would be threatened by the possibility that they are not needed to procreate. What they don’t understand is that this will just give women the choice of whether to choose to fertilise their own eggs through parthenogenesis, with another woman’s eggs, or from sperm. It really is just a way to give women more choices.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. All of this sounded like a sci-fi novel.

“All right Kerryn. I have several wealthy donors who would be prepared to help. What do you need?”

“I would like to purchase eggs from other agencies without drawing too much attention to this sideline. Can you make it happen?”

“Of course. Leave it with me.” The voice I can only assume belonged to the new president replied before continuing adamantly “But when this is all done, Danny and I will be the first in line to create our baby.”

I heard the moving of chairs and soft footfalls and hurriedly moved out of sight of Dr Theroux’s door. I watched as two striking women exited the room hand in hand.

The Doctors door had closed before I remembered to breath.

Holy crap.

This was why I worked for this woman.

I took a deep breath and walked back and opened the Doctors door.

“Sally?”

“I heard it all,” I said “I want in.”