If I give you three eggs out of my basket next week, will you give me $150,000.00?

I signed up for egg donation about 15 years ago. They only paid $3000.00 back then. It was for a batch of eggs that could include a dozen or more eggs. I had some health problems at the time that my doctor didn't think would go well with the hormone shots, so I didn't go through with it. I suppose eggs are a hot commodity now. Too bad I'm too old now!

Typical male doctor response, we want smarter, healthier children but we aren't willing to pay a decent price to the only sex that can provide it. But wait until he grows up and we put a football in his hand and we will give him millions. Beware of your frail male egos, women can live on without men, but men cannot live on without women.

Beware of your frail male egos, women can live on without men, but men cannot live on without women.

Where is your proof? Perhaps you should review just how a human life is created.

Besides, look at all the jobs that men take care of in this world. If we all left, who would build the bridges, buildings, houses, roads, etc? Who would fly the airplanes, deliver the packages, cut down the trees, catch the fish, drive the trucks? Like it or not, we take care of a lot of the manual labor that makes this world go 'round. You really believe that women would step up and do all of that? My wife can't change a flat tire, she just isn't strong enough. The frailty of women is offset by mens strength.....it's why the world would never work if either sex dissapeared. We compliment each other.

Work smarter! Not harder! ^_^ That being said, I may not need men, but still I sure do like em!

Protect Yourself, you're right, we all need each other in this world.

ya I bet they don't even get a copy of playgirl when they donate. :) Just kidding. I know it is much more involved. and for all that they earned it.

If it's okay, and it is, that these donors be paid then the families of deceased organ donors should receive a reasonable fixed amount to help defray funeral expenses. Everyone else in the system receives payment and so should the donor families.

You can do that. My mother, a lifelong RN at Mass General in Boston, bequeathed her body at death to the Albany Medical Ctre. Anatomical Gift Foundation.

Ashes are returned within 6-12 months. No costs, and it saves others lives through teaching.

you obviously dont know what is involved in sperm donation. Not just anyone can go into a clinic and donate sperm, unlike what you see on tv. In order to donate sperm, you MUST be at least 6" tall, you MUST have a degree (sorry, college/highschool dropouts not welcome), and you MUST be std free.

Anyone else who says they have donated sperm and dont meet these requirements, are liars.

True in that case, but I'm not talking about allowing the entire cadaver to be used for dissection in gross anatomy lab. Just isolated stuff like corneas, heart, liver. A small payment to the donor's family would not be inappropriate since the hospital, transplant team, surgeons, etc., are all appropriately being paid. The donor/survivors are the only ones providing something in the process who are not compensated. This would solely apply to deceased donors in order to not encourage a market in organs from live donors. One might argue that remuneration violates the spirit of donation. Perhaps, but then let's be consistent and have everyone else, including the mortician, donate his/her services in the same spirit.

"No dissection in gross lab....just isolated "stuff" cut out/dissected like corneas, heart and liver.

You made my day!

[[you obviously dont know what is involved in sperm donation. Not just anyone can go into a clinic and donate sperm, unlike what you see on tv. In order to donate sperm, you MUST be at least 6" tall, you MUST have a degree (sorry, college/highschool dropouts not welcome), and you MUST be std free.]]

I was referring to what one goes through PHYSICALLY, not what qualifications are necessary. I'm sorry, but masturbating into a jar isn't quite like surgery. As for requiring that you have to be six feet tall (you wrote six inches, but let's hope that's a typo), that IS unfair, and not only to short guys. What about short COUPLES who want their baby to look like them?

Would it make a difference to you if the parents possessed these traits themselves? I mean, if the couple were accomplished physicists seeking an egg donor who possessed a physics degree with honors, would that be justifiable? I mean, it's not like they are just trying to create the smartest kid on the block; they are just trying to mimic their own genetic traits and produce offspring likely to have traits in common with them. To me, it seems that would be different than a middle class couple seeking eggs from Harvard's top graduate, simply hoping to produce their community's valedictorian someday.

A good point, but it sounds as if you are saying it would be o.k. for an upper class couple to try to reproduce an 'upper class child' vs a middle class trying to do the same and improve that child's lot in life? sounds kind of like keep the class to them selves. Do we live in the caste system?

Unlikely a middle class family could afford to pay $50k for an egg, plus the tens of thousands in additional costs associated with the procedure.

I agree! My husband and I were fortunate enough to receive an egg donation through a neighbor's daughter. While we did compensate her for her time and efforts, we never could afford the exorbitant amounts referenced in this article. Fees like the ones mentioned rule out too many good couples who desperately want to be parents. In fact, we had given up as we were facing women who requested $10-15K per cycle, which was beyond what we could afford when the cost of IVF was still something we had to pay out of pocket.

And yes, you always have those who judge and tell you to "just adopt." However, it's not that easy and adoption is a business like any other with fees that most can't afford. Besides most of those people have never experienced fertility issues and can't truly comprehend what someone is going through. It blew me away how many people would say somethign along those lines, but then they never offered to help us with the cost.

I know many families who have gone that route. Two of them still don't have kids after over two years of trying; one of them has given up. Two ended up with surrogates to have a child. A couple of others were successful. One ended up with a baby with a terminal chronic condition, but she was carrying twins, and they could not be sure if both had the condition or just one. After they were born it turned out just one had the condition. I doubt many people understand how much some people go through to have what so many take for granted.

In general parents actually are trying to find egg donors that match them at the basic physical levels, height, hair color, eye color, and basic bone structure. Do I think its likely that most parents might try to select donors that give their kids a bit of an edge, sure, but the couples that are offering exorbitant amounts of money are generally highly successful themselves, so selecting donors that are also highly successful actually is just a way of matching the parents characteristics. As I said, I would donate for 5 to 10 thousand, but I won't turn down 50 thousand out of some sense of moral outrage, I could sleep much better with and extra 50 thousand to help pay off student loans and other bills. And if by some chance the parents are trying to create some super baby, I say good luck, final results are equally if not more so dependent on environmental factors, genetics can only do so much.

That starts to become enough money to attract corruption. If you could donate 3 or 4 times throughout college, you could take out a loan for plastic surgery and completely enhance your appearance to get top dollar. You would only need to be tall, and in a top school, the rest could be taken care of with a plastic surgeon - cheeck implants, chin implants, a perfect nose, breast implants, liposuction (if needed), lip injectibles, etc... In other words, pretty much all of what they do in hollywood. The parents would be thinking they are looking at super model (with a brain) genes, when they were really looking at the results of a super surgeon.

Oh, there is a plot for my next novel!

[[Fees like the ones mentioned rule out too many good couples who desperately want to be parents.]]

My two word answer: TOO BAD. It's good that you lucked out, but you aren't magically entitled to get whatever you want, especially when it's at the expense of somebody else's pain and risk.

[[It blew me away how many people would say somethign along those lines, but then they never offered to help us with the cost.]]

I'm sorry, but there are much more compelling causes for people to donate to.

meh, people MAKE celbs

cant blame Hollywood completely, they tend to give people what they want

If you're seeking a tall, smart, blond-haired, blue-eyed egg donor because you think that is an "ideal" look, that is different than seeking those traits because they match your own traits. Many people want a child to resemble them. I think we need to look at motive before judging.

Blond haired, Blue eyed, high intelligence OR, superior... does this sound familiar?

Maybe we are not all that different than Germany of the 40's

I'm on the fence about this because I believe we should be able to make our own minds up but there is a ethical question that arises when money is the motivator for these women donating eggs, which are the beginnings of life. What an ethical nightmare we have created with our technology. Selective breeding for the wealthy.

But today women can "fake" it.

Blonde hair from a bottle and Blue eyes from contacts!!

ie. Caveat Emptor

Yeah, and cosmetic surgery covers a multitude of sins.

Plus , you ever see some of these Hollywood pin-ups w/o makeup? (shudder)

Dr. Phil joked on his show that since moving to LA he doesn't recognize any of the celebrities he used to know.....since they live so close to him and he sees them on the street!

and those so called "admired" celebs are not producing the most beautiful rocket scientists either if you actually take a real look. Nurturing plays a major part in how well that intelligence blooms also. i've know a lot of "smart" high IQ (including some mensa members) but yet they can be the laziest people alive - depends on how you are bought up to value your intelligence. it arises the old "nature vs nurture" issue. not all rocket scientists are geniuses, they have "normal" IQ but have worked hard to obtain what they have.

Tell me about it. Once they "bloom" - they'll never vacuum again!

That's funny, NHaven

When celebrities want to go incognito all they have to do is remove their makeup.

The price for sperm? They get to keep the magazine.

But the reality is that orphanage children often have serious health or behavioral problems, or a history of trauma. It takes the right kind of person to care for them. If you are not specially qualified to do so, it is not necessarily in the interests of the child for you to adopt them. And the fact is, healthy newborns are not that readily available for adoption. It's a misconception a lot of forum posters seem to have... that adoption is such an easy option. Every one I know who adopted spent years on wait lists to get a newborn. The process for adopting special-needs and/or older children is even more grueling, because it involves more challenges. That's quite a bit to ask of someone simply because they are infertile.

JLM, there is no such thing as the 'perfect' child. You can have one from the womb and they can have health and mental problems. You can have one from a test tube and they can have mental and/or health problems. You can adopt and they can have health an mental problems. Or by womb, test tube, or adoption, the child could be perfect. My family has had all three and what you get is what you work with. Raising any child is work, dedication, and a large dose of love and patience.

If some women want to donate their eggs and if some men want to donate their sperm - OK- pay them for their donation. The results is a crap shot of genetics. Both of the original donor carries the past in their genes. No one can guarentee the results.

JLM if you know people who waited years for a newborn then they went about it the wrong way for sure. The average wait at the agency we used is 9-18 months. And we got our son in 3 months. There are several couples that we talk with on the adoption forum who got their baby in just weeks. Use a reputable agency and don't go the private attorney route and you won't wait years.

Would she have to undergo a swimsuit competition for the panel? What would the criteria be for the "experts"? Maybe Snoop Dog? Women are born with all of the eggs they will ever produce. They ovulate once per month. Men produce millions of sperm and leave them all over the place, like in bedsheets in motels, between the pages of magazines etc. Maybe this way some poor women can actually go to a decent college if they can get accepted as a donor at these prices! Oh wait, no, it would be much better to slave away at a waitressing job.

Why should we allow your god to decide who has children? He has a poor human rights record.

There should be no cap. Let the market decide.

Unfortunately, the "Market" is the "PLanet" - and cannot support the population in this world now.

There is no ethical issue here regarding price. It's an elective procedure. No one needs to have it done in order to preserve life and limb. Therefore the market should appropriately set the price.

About as much concern as a fella would have to get his viagra.

The gender selection issue is debatable. What about the couple who has six sons, in an attempt to have a daughter? The poverty and attention deprivation in that family far exceeds the philosophical dilemma of letting a couple choose their child's gender in the first place. Imagine the standard of living and parental attention that one or two children would receive, because Mom and Dad were satisfied with gender and didn't feel the need to keep "trying" for the other.

In China they throw female newborns off cliffs until they get that 1 male child who "will take care of us in our old age." All selfish.

New Haven don`t be a total dolt! In China they abort many foetuses that are female but they don`t throw newly born children off of cliffs.Thanks to amniocentesis,future parents have been able to determine the gender of their offspring for a very long time now.The practice of aborting female fetuses is,or at least was,very common in patriarchal INDIA and one estimate indicated that over 10 million female fetuses were aborted in India within the past 20 years or so.Personally this "selective breeding " predilection that some people engage in is just another hustle for the "high priests of our degenerate secular society" the Doctors.Anything for a buck or two for the little boys and girls of good old medicine.Personally,couples that resort to this type of arrangement are pathetic and wanton...look if you want to sire kiddies do it the traditional way or don`t bother period! Think of the money that you will save by not breeding the little bu"#¤#!

Aborting a seven month pregnancy against the mother's wishes with no anesthesia that's ok?

Capital punishment of simple thieves and then selling their organs that's ok? Harvesting their organs before they are dead...

Let's not defend that totalitarian regime.

[[What about the couple who has six sons, in an attempt to have a daughter?]]

Well, they are jerks. I wanted a daughter, I had boys instead, tough beans. I live with it. Maybe someday my sons will marry and I will have daughters after all. When did people get the ridiculous idea that they are entitled to everything they want?

Simple, when people stop taking you up on the offer, the price is too low. When there are lines at the clinic, the price is too high.

There is a price on human life. The military gives a set amount of life insurance to members. That is a goverment set price on human life eh?

Its a blood egg, so its not a human life yet. It should be sold for what the market can bear.

If it's any consolation to you, fertility treatment doesn't make much of a dent in population. There are not that many wanna-be parents with fertility problems, let alone fertility problems that can be corrected with modern techniques. And usually it results in one or two children. The real population "problems" occur with higher life expectancy and higher fecundity. In other words, people who can have children are having more and they are surviving. That is what drives the exponential population curve. The effect of fertility treatments on global population is negligible.

It would take quite a bit of diluting considering the already overpopulated state of the world today. Besides which, Nadia and the Duggars are compensating for everyone that chooses egg donation to produce one or two designer babies. Also, since you have stated that if a woman can't have a baby, she's not meant to be a mother, if the husband really wants children of his own, should he have a mistress, divorce the current wife or what? Parents that go through this process really want to have a family of their own.

If everyone was as honest and insightful as you seem to be........what a totally different world we would have today.

[[Parents that go through this process really want to have a family of their own.]]

This by NO means guarantees that they will be better parents than those of us who had children the old fashioned way: the condom broke. Wanting something really bad isn't a moral imperative. It's just wanting something.

- These are private arrangements, so the medical establishment doesn't feel like they are getting to control things and skim off a good portion of the money for research, lobbyists, profit, or whatever.

- Nothing, unless it's accompanied by genocide.

- Healthy children are one of the things human beings most desire.

It's easier and often less costly to go through outrageous fertility treatments than to adopt. The restrictions and fees on adoptions are the real "disgusting and unethical" phenomena.

The "hungry mouths" you speak of are often tied up in foster care or other custody situations, making them unavailable for adoption. People who have children through fertility treatments are almost always able to feed those children, so you can't call them "more hungry mouths." I know plenty of parents who were willing to adopt, but didn't want to languish on the wait list for 7 years, so they took drastic measures to achieve pregnancies. The real solution to your "hungry mouths" problem would be to snatch newborns from poverty-stricken and drug-addicted parents so that adoptive parents would be able to care for them early in life, because abuse, neglect, and the instability of foster care erodes their potentials.

I agree JLM. Also, for some reason the standards for adoption are sometimes ludicrous. I worked with a 50 year old caucasian female, she was married to a 50 year old professional caucasian male. They wanted to adopt a biracial 6 month old baby. They were told that they were "too old". So much for society being concerned about children languishing in the social services system. These prospective parents were well able to care for a child, but didn't meet the age requirements.

While you are certainly entitled to your opinion, and it may be right, you do not have the right to enforce it on others.

If people are paying 50k for an egg, I bet the mouths they are bringing are not hungry. So moot point.

Any moron can make a baby. But adoption is nearly impossible. Adoption in your home country should be made easier. Adoption from other countries should be outlawed.

Adoption is NOT nearly impossible. Where do you get these ideas? My husband and I are both 46 and we adopted a healthy newborn after a wait of 3 months. Yes, there was a cost but it was less than $50K for sure. And the cost is less for a bi-racial or full African-American baby because there are less people wanting to adopt them.

Those who are waiting for years and years and those who say they are too old aren't doing their research and picking a reputable adoption agency. My husband had a heart attack at 43 and they still allowed us to adopt.

At the agency we used they typically finalize over 300 adoptions a year. That doesn't seem like it's all that impossible to me.

If "GOD" didn't want us to "PLAY GOD" then why did he give us the brains to come up with the technology to acheive such things?!

Not playing with god. For sperm donation, they play with themselves, for egg donation, they go through hell. They should be well paid. The woman that is.

Also, your god wants to do something about it, he should show up in person, instead of taking credit for accidents and the like.

Oh ah "TIRED OF SILLY",I have a better handle for you...uhmm how about FULL OF STUPID! Really,"Tired" if you can`t see the forest for the trees than you truly are a challenged specimen.This selective breeding program is just another hustle concocted by the high priests of our degenerate,secular world...unethical doctors who play on the narcissism,and inherent stupidity of people and appeal to their vanity and egotistical mindset by implementing these procedures.Medicine has become just another human hustle,especially in the Excited States,and the Hippocratic oath of...DO NO HARM...has been drowned out by the siren call of crass materialism.This myth that somehow people of genius would sire exceptional children doesn`t cut it among intelligent people anymore.I mean who ever heard of Einstein`s progeny or Chopin`s progeny or even Gandhi`s children?The afore mentioned men were giants of their time but what ever became of their children? Think about it,"TIRED"!

Freddie, stop being a total dolt.

No JLM it is a blatant attempt to play God and interfere with nature.Why don`t all you supporters of this travesty bring us up to speed on how the cloning techniques,celebrated by the mentally challenged Media,have improved the human condition? Hell,cloning is about as practical and necessary as the Swine flu vaccine...another hallmark moment brought to you by the deranged twits of contemporary medical Science.Our motto..."Our hustles are special and we are too cause we will screw the public before we are through".

Sorry you weren't accepted into Medical School, really.