Ivy League women targeted to sell their eggs

Not many women would turn down an offer of $10,000.

But some women might if it means selling their eggs.

Ivy League women are being targeted by various agencies to sell their eggs for anywhere from $5,000 to $30,000.

"College students are in the right age group to become donors, tend to have more flexible schedules than older, working women and are reasonably intelligent and motivated," said Dawn Hunt, president of Fertility Alternatives, an agency that has intermittently advertised in The Daily Pennsylvanian for about seven-to-eight years.

However, many Ivy League women are targeted by agencies that judge potential donors' eligibility by criteria such as SAT scores, talents and appearances.

Penn alumna and English professor Stephanie Harzewski said she dropped out during the approximately four-month process of egg donation when she was in her early 30s.

"I have mixed feelings about egg donation because it enables women who are not in a position to financially support a child to vicariously birth one," said Harzewski. "But on the other end, although women voluntarily enter into this arrangement, it is often because of student loan debt or insufficient funds."

To lure potential egg donors, some agencies offer large sums of money - at times over $10,000.

However, Amy Demma, founder and president of Prospective Families, said such practices fall outside of industry guidelines established by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

"If only I could get paid that much for my sperm," said Wharton freshman Ernesto Del Valle.

Hunt called unacceptably high payments made in exchange for egg donations a problem for agencies that are "honest and up-front from the beginning and will get the donor reasonably high compensation and match those donors with good, sound people simply wanting a family - not unobtainable perfection."

According to Demma, few laws surround egg donation, which may be the reason why women are lured into the process for financial means.

Under regulations set by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, eggs donors must be non-smokers between the ages of 21 and 32, have healthy family histories and lifestyles and be practicing safe sex if sexually active.

Also, the ASRM has determined that $5,000 is the minimum acceptable payment to egg donors, $7,000 to $10,000 requires justification and amounts over $10,000 are unacceptable.

"I don't believe in throwing large amounts of money at young women to convince them to help a couple," Hunt said.

College freshman Diana Olivos shares a similar viewpoint.

"I would never do such a thing for the money, even though anything from $5,000 to $30,000 is a lot and tempting," she said. "It's like selling a life - horrible."

*This article was edited at 4:00 a.m. on Feb. 19 to clarify that Amy Demma said egg donor compensation over $10,000 is not illegal, but rather that it falls outside outside of industry guidelines established by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

Comments (7)

WILL YOU BE MY BABY'S MAMA? The egg donor market wants you, Harvard women, and it�?ll pay According to Baywatch standards, you�?ve lucked out in the gene pool�?you�?re an athletic, thin, tall blonde with high cheekbones. Add that Harvard education and a higher SAT score�?and now you�?ve hit the jackpot, but not for the reasons you�?d expect. Some infertile couples are willing to pay you up to $50,000 for those genes. Egg donation agencies, which help infertile couples find egg donors, have recently barraged college and university newspapers with requests for donated eggs. Demand for donated eggs has driven up prices and caused a dramatic leap in compensation for Ivy League donors. Although no concrete numbers are available, Ivy League applicants are a small minority of all egg donors. Donor matching agencies say graduate students are much more likely to donate, making undergrad eggs all the more desired. While most egg donors receive a few thousand dollars in compensation for the process (sperm donors only make a paltry hundred), Ivy League girls are the cr?me de la cr?me of the egg donation pool and routinely earn five-digit compensations. An aspiring donor goes through an intensive screening process: agencies ask everything from favorite music, to how quickly one tans, to SAT scores, to the occurrence of asthma in the family. If a donor is paired with an infertile couple, she is treated with the drug Lupron to prime her body; the donor receives local anesthesia, and her eggs are �?harvested�? from the ovaries via needle, up to 40 at a time... Most ethicists take issue with the marketplace created around Ivy League eggs, not with the donation process itself. A healthy, college-educated woman receives around $5,000 dollars for her egg donation; first-tier college students around twice that; Harvard, Stanford, Princeton and Yale students up to ten times that amount.

Harvard, Stanford, Princeton and Yale donors are in a class unto their own? You have to especially question Stanford. Afterall, Chelsy Clinton went to Stanford and no one would want to get in on that gene pool! [QUOTE id="1b255e27-a9d5-419f-b925-44507907cc65"]"WILL YOU BE MY BABY'S MAMA? The egg donor market wants you, Harvard women, and it�?ll pay According to Baywatch standards, you�?ve lucked out in the gene pool�?you�?re an athletic, thin, tall blonde with high cheekbones. Add that Harvard education and a higher SAT score�?and now you�?ve hit the jackpot, but not for the reasons you�?d expect. Some infertile couples are willing to pay you up to $50,000 for those genes. Egg donation agencies, which help infertile couples find egg donors, have recently barraged college and university newspapers with requests for donated eggs. Demand for donated eggs has driven up prices and caused a dramatic leap in compensation for Ivy League donors. Although no concrete numbers are available, Ivy League applicants are a small minority of all egg donors. Donor matching agencies say graduate students are much more likely to donate, making undergrad eggs all the more desired. While most egg donors receive a few thousand dollars in compensation for the process (sperm donors only make a paltry hundred), Ivy League girls are the cr?me de la cr?me of the egg donation pool and routinely earn five-digit compensations. An aspiring donor goes through an intensive screening process: agencies ask everything from favorite music, to how quickly one tans, to SAT scores, to the occurrence of asthma in the family. If a donor is paired with an infertile couple, she is treated with the drug Lupron to prime her body; the donor receives local anesthesia, and her eggs are �?harvested�? from the ovaries via needle, up to 40 at a time... Most ethicists take issue with the marketplace created around Ivy League eggs, not with the donation process itself. A healthy, college-educated woman receives around $5,000 dollars for her egg donation; first-tier college students around twice that; Harvard, Stanford, Princeton and Yale students up to ten times that amount."[/QUOTE]

While the below comment focuses on some of the same ethical issues I concern myself with when advising my clients on donor selection, I must clarify that, to my knowledge, clinics are not stimulating donors to produce 40 eggs....that number is significantly excessive and not standard practice. Again, the discussion of this matter is wonderful but the focus seems to be on exaggerated cases. I urge the PENN community to consider a discussion on the medical, legal and social implications of egg donation so that students, regardless of compensation or clinical procedure, will make informed decisions about whether or not egg donation is right for them (and, frankly, the hope is that many young women, once fully informed, will realize that egg donation is not "right for them"). [QUOTE id="1b255e27-a9d5-419f-b925-44507907cc65"]"WILL YOU BE MY BABY'S MAMA? The egg donor market wants you, Harvard women, and it�?ll pay According to Baywatch standards, you�?ve lucked out in the gene pool�?you�?re an athletic, thin, tall blonde with high cheekbones. Add that Harvard education and a higher SAT score�?and now you�?ve hit the jackpot, but not for the reasons you�?d expect. Some infertile couples are willing to pay you up to $50,000 for those genes. Egg donation agencies, which help infertile couples find egg donors, have recently barraged college and university newspapers with requests for donated eggs. Demand for donated eggs has driven up prices and caused a dramatic leap in compensation for Ivy League donors. Although no concrete numbers are available, Ivy League applicants are a small minority of all egg donors. Donor matching agencies say graduate students are much more likely to donate, making undergrad eggs all the more desired. While most egg donors receive a few thousand dollars in compensation for the process (sperm donors only make a paltry hundred), Ivy League girls are the cr?me de la cr?me of the egg donation pool and routinely earn five-digit compensations. An aspiring donor goes through an intensive screening process: agencies ask everything from favorite music, to how quickly one tans, to SAT scores, to the occurrence of asthma in the family. If a donor is paired with an infertile couple, she is treated with the drug Lupron to prime her body; the donor receives local anesthesia, and her eggs are �?harvested�? from the ovaries via needle, up to 40 at a time... Most ethicists take issue with the marketplace created around Ivy League eggs, not with the donation process itself. A healthy, college-educated woman receives around $5,000 dollars for her egg donation; first-tier college students around twice that; Harvard, Stanford, Princeton and Yale students up to ten times that amount."[/QUOTE]

I enjoyed phone meeting with Ms. Deshpande and am pleased that institutions like the University of Pennsylvania are addressing the issues discussed in the above article. I agree that young women at universities across the country are being regularly "targeted" to participate in egg donation cycles and that often advertisements for donors do attempt to attract responses by highlighting extreme compensation. There is a tremendous need for "donor advocacy" including extensive education and information about the medical, social and legal issues around egg donation and hope U Penn and other schools will engage professionals like myself to bring that information to your student body....I worry that informed decision are not always being made and that too many young women are signing up for reasons other than compassion. I must clarify a misstatement attributed to me, however: donor compensation above $10,000.00 is not illegal, but rather, as discussed during my interview, it is outside of industry standards of practice and guidelines established by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). As mentioned, ASRM is a professional organization (I compared it to the American Medical Association) within which professionals in my field attempt to "self-regulate" through established guidelines.

I don't think Chelsea's eggs would require a high premium, no matter what her SAT score might have been. Remember: to command a price of $50,000 to $100,000 or so for the procedure, the donor must, at a minimum, abe "athletic, thin, tall blonde with high cheekbones" as well. I should also think that in this day and age when the value of SAT scores has been debased - what with the opportunity to take the test multiple times, to benefit from coaching, etc. that the well-advised purchaser would also demand some evidence of multi-generational achievement to demonstrate the superiority to the donor's gene pool.

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