Cyprus

The market for women's eggs is booming. But wide differences in price and poor regulation over human egg donations have created an international black market for eggs

Scott Carney speaks about his reporting on the sale of human eggs on The Leonard Lopate Show.

Sometimes certain information can propel itself forward regardless of its factual accuracy. In this case, one single sliver of hearsay printed four years ago sparked an entire body of academic literature that on closer inspection has no basis in reality.

Technological advances in fertility offer increasingly broad markets, presenting soon-to-be expectant parents with an array of options for genetics and conception.

Though human egg harvesting is legal in Cyprus, one clinic comes under fire for violation of even lax Cypriot guidelines, including allegations of dangerous over-harvesting and over-stimulation of patients.

Low income women with few other means of supporting themselves or their families are most vulnerable to selling into the dangerous human egg trade.

Altruism can't be bought; low payments for human eggs creates incentive enough for only the most desperate women.

With no other means of income, illegal Russian immigrants in Cyprus often resort to a dangerous yet relatively lucrative option: selling their eggs.

Modern fertility technology has made parenthood a possibility for thousands more people, but it has also created a lucrative market -- and ethically questionable -- global trade in human genetic material. 

Through a trick of favorable currency exchange and lax laws the island nation of Cyprus is one of the fastest expanding markets for human eggs. Here an implantation costs between $8,000 and $14,000. In the U.S. the price floats between $20,000 and $30,000.