Companies offer women $7,000 for donating eggs By Rachel Rohr Washington Square News anuary/ /news/eggs/eggs.html

Supply of Eggs? (U-WIRE) NEW YORK - The ATM refuses to dispense cash and the receipt reads, "Insufficient funds." Suddenly the ads in the WSN become more tempting: "If $7,000 will feel great in your pocket, imagine what you'll feel in your heart. Become an egg donor and fulfill an infertile couple's dream." Many egg donor programs and individual couples looking for donors advertise in student newspapers to target women between 21 and 32. The ads offer thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars for eggs, but it is not easy money. Egg donation is a more strenuous, lengthy and risky process than sperm donation. Instead of a copy of Playboy and a cup, egg donation entails extensive screening and tests; three types of medication, one of which requires 10 days of self-injections in the buttocks; frequent early morning checkups; and a short surgical procedure.

How Much? Though $7,000 may seem like a lot of money to some, to others the gift of another woman's eggs is priceless. A donor egg allows an infertile couple to conceive a child that will be biologically connected to the recipient mother through her pregnancy, and genetically connected to the recipient father through his sperm. Some of the recipients are single women or lesbians, and this technology enables them to conceive without necessarily being fertile. Most ads and classifieds that offer sums of $15,000, $25,000 or up to $100,000 are not placed by clinics or hospital-based programs, but by individual couples recruiting their own donor, or by an agency they have hired. Donors to egg donation programs are usually anonymous, but applications ask for various details about physical appearance, education and religion. Rules, however, are different for those individual couples offering far more money. Not only do they want to meet their prospective donor, but typically the couple has a very specific image of what kind of woman they want, often specifying the precise physical appearance, talents and SAT score the couple is looking for in a donor.

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The Economics What do you think? Is it ethical? Would you pay it? Would you do it? # Egg Donors $ Supply