A London IVF clinic is raffling a woman’s eggs as part of a Mother’s Day promotion for infertility treatment for older women. The Bridge Clinic has teamed up with an American company, the Genetics and IVF Institute (GIVF) in Fairfax, Virginia and is offering £13,000 of free IVF treatment in the US to the winner.

The partnership allows the Bridge Clinic to circumvent a ban on paying for women’s eggs in Britain. It is legal in the US and some women can get US$10,000 for their eggs. “They are much more market-driven than we are, and they do have some rather more creative techniques,” said Michael Summers, a senior consultant in reproductive medicine at the Bridge.

GIVF is marketing its competitive advantage, a profiling service. It supplies its clients with a dossier on the egg donor which includes her education, race, age, eye colour, hair colour and upbringing. Overweight women or smokers are not allowed to donate.

The sales gimmick was condemned by Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics: “Imagine a child one day finding out that he or she came into being thanks to such a blatantly commercial initiative? Won in a raffle?” The IVF industry had plumbed new depths, she said. “In no other branch of medicine would the ruthless exploitation of the vulnerable be tolerated. These women selling their eggs are taking a huge risk with their health and future fertility simply because they need the money.”

Another advantage of buying eggs in the US is that donations there are anonymous, unlike the UK, and there is little danger of a grown-up child finding her biological mother. ~London Sunday Times, Mar 14