Over at The New Inquiry, Moira Donegan offers a compelling look at the realities of young women who choose to sell their eggs to infertile couples trying to get pregnant. Of particular interest in this article is how these donors aim to emphasize their education levels in order to appeal to the wealthy couples looking to use donor eggs. She writes:

But what’s most striking about the donors’ profiles is how hard these women are trying to be liked—liked, in particular, by the educated, wealthy couples whose DNA they hope to substitute for their own . . . Wealthy couples, after all, want to buy the eggs of someone like themselves—or, rather, of someone who resembles the better version of themselves that they would like to be. If this were not the case, Ivy League campus papers like the Yale Daily News would not regularly run ads from rich couples offering enormous sums for prize eggs, describing their ideal donors as “Asian geniuses” or women with “36-24-36 measurements and a love of Mozart.”

This is unsurprising and consistent with the testimonials provided from the women featured in our documentary film Eggsploitation. Do you have friend, loved one, or child on a college campus that could be prey to such ads? Are they aware of the risks and health hazards associated with the selling of their eggs?

As Donegan observes, “Elite education may impoverish and indebt young women and do little to get them a job, but at least it makes their eggs valuable.” Yet in the long run, these risks could prove incalculable.

Author Profile

Christopher White, Ramsey Institute Project Director