Project

The Price of White Eggs

The price of a human egg depends on the characteristics of the donor. In America, eggs harvested from white college students at Ivy League institutions can sell for as much as $100,000. But there's a cheaper way to get them. Selling human eggs is illegal in much of Europe, however Cyprus and Spain have loopholes in their fertility industries markets that encourage desperate and poor women to sell their eggs for as little as $1400. The donors are mostly refugees from the tattered economies of Eastern Europe who jump at the chance to earn a couple hundred dollars for undergoing potentially dangerous egg harvesting procedures.

Cyprus is now one of the top destinations worldwide for fertility tourism, performing thousands of egg harvestings each year. Yet activists claim that the profit motive is driving some doctors to increase egg production by putting donors through more dangerous harvesting procedures. In Spain, illegal immigrants fill the lobbies of world class fertility centers while at the same time providing a safe haven for women to seek out fertility treatments that are illegal in their home countries.

The Spanish Prisoner

Human egg donors in Spain are predominantly immigrant women with few other legal options for making money.

International Baby Maker

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

Importing Egg Donors from Ukraine to Cyprus

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.

Vulnerable to Recruiting

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