Investigators uncover egg donation scheme in India

Investigators in India have discovered an illegal egg harvesting scheme which allegedly preyed upon vulnerable women living in extreme poverty.

Key Takeaways:

• Police were tipped off that hormone injections were being administered in a residential apartment.

• A raid was conducted and after some investigation, authorities uncovered a multi-region scheme involving recruiters, medicine suppliers, sonographers, document forgers, and fertility clinics.

• Indian law permits women to donate eggs just once in their lifetime, but at least one woman had her eggs harvested over 45 times, causing serious damage to her body.

• Numerous other women living in slums reported similar experiences.

The Details:

The Indian Express reported on the disturbing stories of several women, using pseudonyms.

Neeta Prasad and her family live in a one-room shack in the Ulhasnagar slum, and she finds work by sweeping floors and cleaning utensils, while her husband works as a cook. Together, they were barely making enough money to get by, when a relative told her about what seemed like an easy way to get more money.

“She said I could make Rs 20,000 by donating my ‘stree beej’ (eggs)," she said. "My body naturally produces them every month and since I had children of my own, I could donate them and get paid."

Prasad agreed, and first received hormone injections for two weeks, followed by regular ultrasounds. Then she was given a trigger injection before being taken to a clinic, where a doctor sedated her and removed her eggs.

From the very first procedure, she was in pain and vowed to never do it again. “The woman giving me the injections said it was normal. She told me I was helping women who could not have children,” she said. “I was scared although I received Rs 20,000."

Yet her financial pressures continued, and so when she was asked to donate, she continued to say yes, until she had undergone the egg retrieval process over 45 times.

Another woman, Roshani Shaikh, was living in Maharashtra’s slums and began to struggle even more after her husband abandoned her. A woman who she knew only as "madam" coordinated her egg retrievals.

“I thought I could move to a better area and improve my life. My friends had been donating eggs for years and they were earning good money,” she said. “When I held Rs 20,000 in my hand after every procedure, the pain my body had gone through suddenly felt very small."

Suman Patil said she had been left with crippling debt after her husband left her for another woman, and was recommended to the egg donation network by friends. “They told me I could make Rs 30,000 every month on the side," she said. "I experienced severe cramps and bloating, but the money kept me going.”

Eventually, Badlapur police received a tip about hormone injections being given in a residential apartment. Together with government doctors, police conducted a raid. Their investigation uncovered a network that spanned multiple states, and found a vast supply chain made up of doctors, pharmacists, recruiters, medicine suppliers, sonographers, document forgers, fertility clinics, and more. 15 people have been arrested so far, and charged with human trafficking, exploitation, forgery, and violations of the ART Act.

Similar scandals have been uncovered in India recently, indicating a much deeper issue with the fertility industry.

Zoom Out:

It is extremely common for people across the globe to sell their eggs and sperm because they need money to pay for everything from rent to college tuition. What's more, the fertility industry often uses exploitative measures to encourage more women to donate.

And all the while, women are rarely informed of the risks they are taking, either as donors or as recipients.

Women who donate eggs are risking complications like Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS), which is portrayed as rarer than it actually is.

Wendy Kramer, founder of the Donor Sibling Registry, explained:

[O]ur research paints a different picture. In our first published study of 155 egg donors, we found that 30.3% reported Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS).

In our second survey of 176 egg donors in 2014, we found that 32.4% of egg donors reported complications such as OHSS and infection.

In our third Study of 363 egg donors in 2021, 22.4% reported experiencing OHSS.

It is not known if there are any long-term risks of egg donation because there has not been much research dedicated to it. And as Jennifer Lahl, the founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, told Live Action founder Lila Rose that women are lured in to donation both by the promise of money and slick marketing lingo meant to tug at their heartstrings.

The Big Problem With IVF w/ Jennifer Lahl

"The marketing is very slick. When two of my daughters were students at the University of California Berkeley, their school paper had an ad: $100,000 for an elite donor. So it’s very eugenic, it’s very selective.

It’s all flowery, ‘Make dreams come true,’ ‘Help a family.’ You’ll see young girls who have sold their eggs say, ‘Well, you have so many eggs, I’m not using them anyway.’

So there’s this lure, and people go, ‘Well, I like to help people and, sure, that money sounds great, and I’m not using my eggs right now. Why not sell some?’ But, there’s the drugs."

Women are given numerous drugs, both to increase egg production, and a trigger shot of HCG to release the eggs from the follicles.

“[T]wo of the women in ‘Eggsploitation’ [a documentary about the fertility industry] lost their ability to ever have their own children. So their fertility was permanently damaged,” Lahl said.

“You don’t count things if they don’t count, and these women don’t count so we don’t count them … the best you can do is CDC data that has an annual report on assisted reproductive technologies in America, and the best you can get is how many IVF cycles were performed, frozen embryos, fresh embryos, but it doesn’t tell you who these women are,” she added.

The Bottom Line:

The global fertility industry is shockingly under-regulated, and women will continue to be exploited and harmed if drastic changes are not made.