China – Young Women Paid Large Sums to Donate Eggs to Infertile Couples on Black Market

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http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1678335/illegal-egg-donors-run-big-risks

 

CHINA – YOUNG WOMEN PAID
LARGE SUMS TO DONATE EGGS TO INFERTILE COUPLES ON BLACK MARKET

 

Young women are
undergoing intensive procedures in exchange for tens of thousands of yuan – but
could end up infertile, medical experts warn

 

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A prospective seller is measured by agents. Photo: SMP

Minnie
Chan minnie.chan@scmp.com – 11
January 2015

Health
experts have called for government regulation to halt the black market trade in
women’s eggs, following a report on the practice by state broadcaster CCTV
yesterday.

The
sellers – some still in high school – were being paid tens of thousands of yuan
for their eggs by agencies acting on behalf of infertile couples but were being
misled about the risks of the drug therapy involved, the report said.

“The
girls we target are all around 20 years old, because that’s the age when
women’s eggs are best,” one agency representative told CCTV.

Retrieving
the eggs required only drug therapy and minimally invasive surgery across about
20 days, agencies told the women. They could earn between 30,000 (HK$37,910)
and 100,000 yuan for a successful retrieval, depending on appearance and
education level, CCTV said.

The women
were told: “You guys can earn tens of thousands of yuan each time, so why
not?”

Mainland
law prohibits compensating women for their eggs, although they can donate them
up to three times.

Medical
experts warned the procedure carried risks.

“Egg
retrieval needs a certain dose of injections for ovarian stimulation before the
operation, which could cause different levels of damage to the ovaries,”
said Dr Suen Sik-hung, a private obstetrician in Hong Kong.

“For
young women, a large dose might produce more than 20 eggs each time, which
could enlarge her ovaries, and in some cases, it could cause bleeding or even
necrosis, meaning she will become infertile.”

The
infertility rate among mainlanders of child-bearing age rose from 3 per cent
two decades ago to between 12.5-15 per cent in 2009, according to a report by People’s
Daily last year. More than 50 million people on the mainland have been
diagnosed as infertile, it said.

Some
agencies in Guangzhou were charging infertile couples up to 1.2 million yuan
for a boy. The package covers eggs, surrogacy services and abortions if the
foetus is a girl, according to CCTV.A Guangzhou-based agency said the
minimum charge, if the sex of the baby was not specified, was about 400,000
yuan.

Ai
Xiaoming, a professor of women’s studies based in Guangdong, said a lack of
regulation and medical information could lead young women to sell their eggs
for money. One woman undergoing the procedure told CCTV she was paying off
credit card debt.

“It’s
nothing new as in today’s China, the human body has become a commodity. It’s
impossible to ban the commercial surrogacy business as assisted reproduction
technology has become part of our lives,” Ai said.

“But
the growing market shows there is a need to form a comprehensive regulation
system, which should be based on a large government-led public consultation
between medical authorities and experts from different sectors.

“All
the cases show that if the government still hesitates to come up with
regulation against these illegal operations, the rights of children and women,
as well as the sex imbalance in our country, will never be properly
addressed.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post
print edition as Illegal egg donors ‘run big risks’