Fade the Butcher
05-05-2006, 05:40 AM
It's an exciting time to be a eugenicist.
MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12209274/site/newsweek/)
With up to $50k for one little egg, colleges have become the breeding ground for the booming fertility market.
By Sarah Kliff
Current Magazine
Summer 2006 issue - Three years out of graduate school, Julia Derek has twelve kids. Or so she thinks. As a penniless senior at George Mason University, she spotted an ad in The Washington Post from a couple looking to buy a young woman’s eggs. Ten years, 12 donations, $50,000, and one successfully financed postgraduate degree later, Derek, now the author of “Confessions of a Serial Egg Donor,” explains the appeal of egg donation: “You’re doing a good thing, it feels good that people want you, it’s cool to spread your genes…It seems like a great thing to make money on.”
And college students can make a lot of money. An examination of campus dailies suggests just how much the DNA of an educated young woman who fits the requirements of the recipients might be worth. An ad in the Columbia Spectator promises $12,000 to a Caucasian student with brown hair and an SAT score above 1300, while two in the Harvard Crimson offer $35,000 to “one truly exceptional woman who is attractive, athletic, under the age of 29” and $50,000 to “an extraordinary egg donor. Must be between the ages of 18 and 26.”
“It’s really easy to get hooked,” says Derek, who initially became interested in egg donation when she realized it could substitute for a part-time job. “For a student it’s a ridiculous amount of money.”
Egg Hunt
The going price of a student’s eggs has soared in recent years. While U.S. law prohibits the sale of any body part, donors can be compensated for the inconveniences of a medical procedure. In 1984, couples or agencies typically paid egg donors around $250. Today, ovum donation agencies such as A Perfect Match consistently advertise single egg donations for as much as $25,000 to $100,000.
“Many times a donor will need to be away from home, jobs, or school for up to 10 to 12 days,” Darlene Pinkerton, director of A Perfect Match, explains in an email. “I feel they deserve to be paid a higher amount when their lives are so disrupted.”
For many cash-strapped females, the chance of financing two years of tuition or a postgraduate degree with a simple operation seems like a no-brainer. And egg brokers know exactly how to target this money-hungry population. Campus dailies run large ads on a regular basis, and some newspapers, including The Stanford Daily and Columbia Spectator, devote entire online sections to couples’ searches for egg and sperm donors. . . .
MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12209274/site/newsweek/)
With up to $50k for one little egg, colleges have become the breeding ground for the booming fertility market.
By Sarah Kliff
Current Magazine
Summer 2006 issue - Three years out of graduate school, Julia Derek has twelve kids. Or so she thinks. As a penniless senior at George Mason University, she spotted an ad in The Washington Post from a couple looking to buy a young woman’s eggs. Ten years, 12 donations, $50,000, and one successfully financed postgraduate degree later, Derek, now the author of “Confessions of a Serial Egg Donor,” explains the appeal of egg donation: “You’re doing a good thing, it feels good that people want you, it’s cool to spread your genes…It seems like a great thing to make money on.”
And college students can make a lot of money. An examination of campus dailies suggests just how much the DNA of an educated young woman who fits the requirements of the recipients might be worth. An ad in the Columbia Spectator promises $12,000 to a Caucasian student with brown hair and an SAT score above 1300, while two in the Harvard Crimson offer $35,000 to “one truly exceptional woman who is attractive, athletic, under the age of 29” and $50,000 to “an extraordinary egg donor. Must be between the ages of 18 and 26.”
“It’s really easy to get hooked,” says Derek, who initially became interested in egg donation when she realized it could substitute for a part-time job. “For a student it’s a ridiculous amount of money.”
Egg Hunt
The going price of a student’s eggs has soared in recent years. While U.S. law prohibits the sale of any body part, donors can be compensated for the inconveniences of a medical procedure. In 1984, couples or agencies typically paid egg donors around $250. Today, ovum donation agencies such as A Perfect Match consistently advertise single egg donations for as much as $25,000 to $100,000.
“Many times a donor will need to be away from home, jobs, or school for up to 10 to 12 days,” Darlene Pinkerton, director of A Perfect Match, explains in an email. “I feel they deserve to be paid a higher amount when their lives are so disrupted.”
For many cash-strapped females, the chance of financing two years of tuition or a postgraduate degree with a simple operation seems like a no-brainer. And egg brokers know exactly how to target this money-hungry population. Campus dailies run large ads on a regular basis, and some newspapers, including The Stanford Daily and Columbia Spectator, devote entire online sections to couples’ searches for egg and sperm donors. . . .