

The advertisements that recruit these donors are also underregulated. Compensation for a single donation can range from about $5,000 to $50,000-depending on factors such as a donor’s physical profile, SAT scores, and athleticism. Economic inducements are potentially limitless, despite egg donation businesses’ insistence that the industry is driven by altruism and “women helping women.”Ĭertainly, the thousands of donors who pay off student loans and other expenses through egg donation payments understand the industry’s economic value. In short, FDA regulates who can be an egg donor-but does not regulate how the for-profit egg donation industry treats donors.Īnd although payments for organ donation have been outlawed in the United States since 1948, paying egg donors is entirely legal.

These clinics must register with FDA and list their “tissue-based products” in accordance with federal standards, which also require that egg donors be tested for infectious diseases.īut although FDA has published guidance documents on egg donor eligibility, it has taken few steps to ensure that donors are treated fairly by egg donation businesses. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), after all, oversees any establishment that recovers, processes, or distributes human reproductive tissue, including eggs. Initially, it may seem that egg donation businesses are at least somewhat regulated. And there is little oversight of the donation process-which involves injecting someone with hormones for at least ten days, and then piercing the vaginal wall with a thick needle to extract eggs from the ovary. agency tracks the long-term health effects of egg donation. Unlike countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada, the United States has no federal regulations that specifically address advertising to potential egg donors.

Such slogans appear regularly on college bulletin boards and the social media feeds of many young women across the United States, advertising the altruistic-and financial-benefits of donating their eggs to would-be parents.īut behind these advertisements lies a poorly regulated industry that buys and sells human eggs, with potential negative health effects for donors. “Earn up to $50,000 dollars!” “Help a family!” “Donate your eggs!”
