| SCENE
| OCTOBER 20, 2005 | Send features
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Donation of a Lifetime
Women, including students, are
donating their eggs to help others and make money
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| The Shorthorn: Alex Pierce |
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By Megan
Wright
The Shorthorn staff
College students have many expenses.
Students attending public institutions pay an average of $3,630
per year for 30 credit hours, $730 for books and supplies and $5,212
for campus room and board, according to the Common Data Set Initiative,
a database compiled by the higher education community.
With a full class load, it can be hard for students to find jobs
that fit their schedules and pay the bills.
However, women may have the solution inside of them — they
can earn thousands of dollars by donating their eggs.
The Need
Some might have noticed advertisements for egg donors in the classifieds
or posted in hallways — their interest piqued by the printed
promise of $3,500 to $5,000 for a donation.
Joan, who chose not to give her last name, works as director for
the Egg Donation Center of Dallas, one business that places these
ads. She would not give her last name because of safety reasons;
her clinic often receives threatening letters.
The center raised donor compensation Oct. 1, giving first-time donors
$4,000. Joan said the money can be extremely helpful for college
students.
“It certainly helps out with college tuition,” she said.
“It’s a nightmare getting that paid these days. If I
was in college again, I would do it in a heartbeat.”
At the Dallas center, the money increases with each donation, topping
out at $5,000 for each of the fourth, fifth and sixth donations.
Donors receive $4,500 for second and third donations. The center
allows women to donate up to six times, earning up to $28,000 for
their eggs.
“That’s a lot of money,” Joan said.
The Procedure
Joan said prospective parents can choose from a list of donors and
their characteristics. Sometimes parents decide on a donor because
her physical attributions resemble the prospective mother’s,
she said.
Once one has been picked and passed physical and psychological examinations,
both the donor and the recipient sign contracts that cover confidentiality
and outline the procedure. Joan said Texas laws ensure donated eggs
are the recipient’s property, not the donor’s.
“Texas is a very good state to do egg donations in,”
she said. “The law is very clear: Once the eggs are donated,
they’re donated. The mother is the mother.”
Joan said a physician will then synchronize the donor’s ovulation
cycle with that of the prospective mother. The donor takes medicine
to help her produce several eggs, while the receiver will start
medication to help her accept the embryo.
Then the physician retrieves the eggs.
Greg Bateson, the university’s Health Education Coordinator,
said he doesn’t think it’s so simple.
“It’s a very invasive procedure,” he said. “I
would make sure [potential donors] understand the total process
they’d go through.”
However, Joan said she considers it a minor surgical procedure.
She said it only lasts 10 to 15 minutes.
“Once received, they’re mixed with the prospective father’s
sperm, and then we pray,” she said. “We pray for embryos.”
Joan said a donor might produce 20 eggs, 17 of which may fertilize
to make embryos. She said some embryos stop developing throughout
the delicate process.
“Maybe they’re down to eight by the third day or, by
the fifth, down to three or four,” she said. “It’s
mother nature’s way of cleaning house.”
Joan said her clinic keeps a “book of blessings” filled
with pictures of babies the staff helped make.
“It’s fascinating what we can do these days, and it’s
so incredibly gratifying,” she said.
The Candidates
The center’s Web site lists 27 requirements for ideal egg
donors and states that donors can be from any race, ethnic background,
religion or marital status.
“Donors don’t have to be perfect donors — nobody’s
perfect,” Joan said. “A good donor might not have all
the characteristics, and they could still be an excellent donor.”
Some of these characteristics include being between the ages of
19 and 29, a nonsmoker, not more than 30 pounds over the donor’s
ideal weight, in good health and having an SAT score above 1100
or an ACT score of at least 24.
The age and intelligence requirements make college students prime
candidates. Joan said the center has had university students donate
and considers them the target population.
“She would also need to be responsible, conscientious and
dependable,” Joan said.
Joan said that during the psychological examination, the clinic
asks donors if they view egg donations as giving up a child or more
like donating blood.
“If she feels like she’s giving up a baby, this might
not be for her,” she said. “If someone is hesitant,
we would encourage them to do some soul searching.”
Interdisciplinary studies senior Jacquin Green said that while the
money made her think twice about donating, she decided it would
be like giving up a baby.
“I don’t know — that’s like a part of you
that’s out there,” she said. “I thought about
it one time, but I was like, ‘No, I can’t do it.’
”
The Payoff
Brandi Bennett of Columbus, Ohio, said she doesn’t look at
it like giving away a child but rather like donating blood.
The 28-year-old business owner posted an ad on the Surrogate Mothers
Online Limited Liability Co. Web site, http://surromomsonline.com,
to donate her eggs.
Bennett said she doesn’t remember when she heard about egg
donations but recently decided to go for it. She posted her ad about
two weeks ago and was contacted by one prospective parent within
the first week.
Bennett said she doesn’t plan to ask for any compensation
— she just wants to help someone else get pregnant.
“My husband’s brother just had a baby,” she said.
“There’s people around me having babies, and I know
lots of people who can’t. I didn’t even know there was
money involved. I’m not doing it for money.”
While Bennett isn’t in it for money, she said she does want
to know who the parents are that will receive her eggs. Rather than
going to a clinic where confidentiality is strictly enforced, she
used an ad so that she could pick the parents herself.
Joan said hopeful parents can get discouraged trying to make a family
and said adopting is tough for some people.
“It’s tragic for people,” she said. “The
recipients [of the egg donations] are people desperately wanting
to have a child and have exhausted all other measures.”
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DONATION INFORMATION
For information on egg donations, visit the Egg Donation
Center of Dallas Web
site.
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