The British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has an article by BC Heng (abstract is here) detailing the practice of obtaining oocytes ("eggs") from women in developing countries. Heng supposes that not only the women more susceptible to financial pressures to "donate" their eggs, but the fact that the drugs to induce superovulation are cheaper in these countries. Since eggs don't freeze and thaw as well as embryos do, the sperm of the intended father is shipped to the foreign country, the egg is fertilized and the embryo is frozen and shipped to the intended mother.
The "need" for human eggs may make all past human trafficking look benign, with camps of imprisoned young women and girls, all undergoing hormonal manipulation and surgery.
Monday, October 30, 2006
International Oocyte Trafficking Has Begun
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Reminds me of the old practices of the blood companies. Mostly the US ones, as they had next to no regulation to worry about. They used to set up paid donor centers in third-world countries, where they could buy a lot of blood for very little. Some of the locals even started eating ground-up nails to increase their blood production ability. A similar practice went on in the US, setting up donation centers in very poor areas full of druggies desperate for money.
The industry was forced to clean up a bit after the hepatitus and HIV scandles... with a lot of foot-dragging and denial first.
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