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Women who donate their eggs for stem cell line research can now be paid up to $10,000 for their donation to science.

It’s a payment the Empire State Stem Cell Board decided was fair and reasonable given the expense, time, burden and discomfort associated with the donation process.

"We already have a mechanism for compensating women who go through this procedure, giving their eggs for reproduction and it seemed very logical to the stem cell board to use that same framework and that same compensation scheme since the risks and the procedure are the same," Jane Greenlaw, Associate Professor of Health Care Law and Co-Director of the Center for Ethics, Humanities and Palliative Care at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) said.

Greenlaw is also a member of the research hospital’s stem cell advisory committee.

Her CEO, Dr. Bradford Berk, is an appointed member of the board that made the decision to compensate women who donate eggs for stem cell research.

He is currently in a rehabilitation facility in New Jersey recovering from a severe spinal cord injury.

Researchers believe the cure for injuries like Dr. Berk's and other severe neurological disorders like Parkinson's, Huntington's and multiple sclerosis could be found in stem cells.

Critics argue that getting paid could lead some women to take unnecessary health risks.

Greenlaw says they are the same risks women are already allowed to take.

"I don't see it as a big departure from any norms that we have already accepted. We pay people to be research subjects. We pay women to donate eggs for other purposes. We allow women to accept this risk in order to be altruistic. We already allow this type of research to be done. So, it doesn’t seem to me like we're breaking any new ground here," Greenlaw said.

She said it's also important to note that women's eggs would not be used for embryonic stem cell research.

She says the eggs would not be fertilized with sperm.

They'd instead be injected with DNA and mimic the fertilization process.

"I think some people are confusing embryos with eggs. We are not talking about using these eggs to create embryos to do research. The eggs themselves are going to be the source of the stem cells that will be the research subjects," said Greenlaw.

URMC has 40 faculty members involved in stem cell research and more than 270 lab staff.

It also has a fertility clinic on site and people who specialize in the egg retrieval process.

It is unclear yet how URMC plans to use this new “tool” in future research.

University of Rochester Medical Center