International Oocyte Trafficking Has Begun

The British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has an article by BC Heng (abstract is here) detailing the practice of obtaining oocytes (“eggs”) from women in developing countries. Heng supposes that not only the women more susceptible to financial pressures to “donate” their eggs, but the fact that the drugs to induce superovulation are cheaper in these countries. Since eggs don’t freeze and thaw as well as embryos do, the sperm of the intended father is shipped to the foreign country, the egg is fertilized and the embryo is frozen and shipped to the intended mother.

The “need” for human eggs may make all past human trafficking look benign, with camps of imprisoned young women and girls, all undergoing hormonal manipulation and surgery.