“Be a Good Egg.” There it is again. Another sign encouraging college girls to donate their ova.
It seems that fertility clinics are increasingly targeting college students for egg and sperm donations in exchange for hard cash compensation. But with all these promises of good money, are fertility clinics specifically exploiting college students?
To begin with, I have never seen an advertisement promising to pay out thousands of dollars to sperm donors. Yet, I often see ads offering such compensation for eggs. What are they not telling us? Why would they offer so much money?
The reality is that egg donations are incredibly time consuming and hard, but the advertisers never let you know that. In fact, it seems as if fertility clinics would rather not tell you that egg donations are worth thousands of dollars in exchange for the time, difficulty and challenges put on the donor’s body and that the compensation is quite appropriate for the job.
To even be considered as a donor for either sperm or eggs, you have to meet certain sets of requirements, which typically include a high school degree as a minimum, as well as either a college degree or being currently enrolled in college. Apparently, recipients of sperm and egg donations would only like educated donors, so fertility clinics have to go out and find people who meet this first requirement by targeting colleges.
Not only do donors need to be educated, healthy and mentally sound, but they also have to be young and good looking. Some ads even suggest that the tone-deaf need not apply. Do people expect extremely beautiful, intelligent and gifted donors to produce equally special spawn? I’m sure that they do.
Something to consider when looking at the ads is the question of who placed them. Was it a fertility clinic looking to further the population? Was it a scientific lab wanting to run genetic tests? The first thing you really have to know is who has the nerve to ask if they can buy your eggs or sperm?
After recruitment, all potential egg and sperm donors have to go through various medical tests and medical history reports to prove whether they qualify to donate. While both men and women have to go through all the medical tests, only women have to complete a psychological exam before they can be cleared for donation. Men still have to complete a lengthy medical exam, and even though each clinic has different requirements, it’s safe to say that sperm donation is not as easy as it’s made out to be in films like Road Trip. In fact, sperm donations for men require weekly donations for up to six months.
Granted, the strain of sperm donation on the body is significantly less than that of egg donation. According to the Bedford research center, the minor risks for women include hormone-induced depression and irritability. Major risks, however, could be hemorrhaging from the procedure or even potential liver failure. Sperm donation does not carry the same risks, considering men do not have to take hormone replacement medications, but the payout is also not as high.
Targeting college students with vague advertising offering them thousands of dollars for their reproductive parts still seems unethical. The advertisements never state exactly how much time is required in donating. Putting the ethical questions or benefits to infertile families aside, is donating sperm and eggs really worth the payout? College students could easily be lured into donating based on financial debt alone without even knowing everything involved, which could lead to regret later. What if later on, the donor wants to know what became of their biological product? All donations start with a contract removing the donor from all responsibility to the spawn, but what if, with age, a donor looks back and wants to know?
While it’s wonderful to give an infertile family the ability to have children, advertisers should stop trying to lure ambitious college students in with promises of money. Students need to know what they’re getting themselves into.