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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

 

·         A prospective seller is measured by agents. Photo: SMP

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'